METRO Wednesday, October 28, 2009 D METRODigest A SUSPECT in a hit-and-run drove more than a mile with one of his victims wedged in the cars windscreen. Christopher Swiridowsky, 30, crashed into three people standing by the side of a Rhode Island motorway, in the US, and took off with one of the men still attached to his car. A 24-year-old victim, found impaled in the windscreen after Swiridowsky abandoned the car, was being treated in hospital for life- threatening injuries. A MAN whose son was killed in the Omagh bomb 11 years ago is to receive an international award for his efforts to give a voice to victims of terrorism. Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden died in the Real IRA atrocity which killed 29 people, has been recognised for his subsequent campaign for justice by the International Centre for Victims of Terrorism in Spain. Accompanied by his wife Patsy, he will pick up the award for Memory, Dignity And Justice in Madrid today in the citys San Pablo CEU university. Award for Omagh bomb campaigner A PART-TIME childcare worker received a two-year sentence for stabbing a parked motorist in a case of mistaken identity. Georgina Crowley, 26, from Inchicore, stabbed a woman in her left shoulder with a knife after she thought the woman was someone who had involved her cousin in drugs. A passerby pulled Crowley off the woman and she took refuge in a nearby apartment complex. The mother-of-three, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm. Judge Katherine Delahunt suspended 18 months of the sentence. Mistaken identity accused gets 2 years A CAMPAIGN is being launched to advise Irish speakers that they have a statutory right to have their case conducted in Irish in any court. An Coimisinir Teanga Sen Cuirrein said it is to counteract the perception of compulsory English in legal affairs. More than 10,000 requests were made to the Courts Service last year for interpreters for 71 languages. The bill for Irish interpretation was less than 2,000 during 2006 and 1,012 in 2007 out of a total of 2million. The Department of the Gaeltacht was earmarked for abolition by An Bord Snip. Gaelgeoir have right to Irish in courts SALES in State-guaranteed prize bonds soared by more than a half this year as eager savers looked for a safe place to stash their cash. More than 280million was taken during the first nine months of the year double the same period in 2008. The bonds, used to help pay off the countrys spiralling national debt, have become popular for savers looking for a secure investment. The bonds, operated on behalf of the National Treasury Management Agency, are a risk-free savings scheme offering investors the chance to win cash prizes. Prize bonds sales soar amid recession Tescos Helen Dwyer and her spooky helper, Matthew Lawless from Greystones, are braced for sales of Irish pumpkins exceeding 30,000 in the run up to Halloween, available at stores nationwide Picture: Fennells Baby elephant Asha enjoys a pumpkin treat at Dublin Zoo ahead of this weekends Halloween festivities. Visitors to the Zoo on Saturday can take part in a pumpkin walk, a creepy parade and a spooktacular Halloween market Picture: Robbie Reynolds halloween heffalump IRA hit-list included Buckingham Palace IRA terrorists behind a London bombing campaign in the 1970s compiled lists of hundreds of possible targets, including British MPs, soldiers, the London Stock Exchange and Buckingham Palace, newly released files revealed yesterday. Police found a number of items linked to high-profile names and addresses when they raided a north London flat used as an IRA bomb factory after the Balcombe Street siege of December 1975. Ireland is still 8th in equality indexBY ROSS McDONAGH IRELAND is the eighth most gender equal country in the world. With a gender equality rating of 76 per cent, Ireland has retained its place on the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Rankings. The index ranks countries by meas- uring the gender inequality gap in four areas: economic participation and op- portunity; education; political empow- erment; and health and survival. In education, Irish women ranked joint first, while they came in eighth for political empowerment, despite having a 4:1 ratio of male to female ministers, and a parliament made up with only 13 per cent of women. The high score was because of hav- Irish women rank first in education equality ing a female head of state for 18 of the last 50 years. Under economic participation and opportunity, our score suffered. Wom- en earn around 70 per cent of what men do for similar work, and there are more than twice as many male legisla- tors, senior officials, and managers than there are female, earning Ireland a rank of 43rd. Despite 93 baby girls born for every 100 boys, and a life expectancy four years beyond their male counterparts, Irish women ranked 86th under health and survival, the worst score by far. Iceland was named the world leader in gender equality followed by Finland, Norway and Sweden, while New Zealand came in fifth. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html