Top ups now come with 6 extra happiness 6 extra free when you top up by 30 Buy in any Vodafone store or online at www.vodafone.ie Offer ends 30/11/09. See www.vodafone.ie for terms and conditions. Bank of Ireland loses 1billion in six monthsBy ED CARTy ThIs one Is for The BIrds 1million of drugs seized at city port CANNABIS worth over 1million was yesterday seized from an organised crime gang after drugs and customs officers swooped on a Co Wicklow business. Some 75kgs of herbal cannabis and 25kgs of cannabis resin were found stuffed in boxes of lamps and clothes at the premises in Hempstown, Blessington yesterday. The shipment, with a street value of 1,050,000, arrived into Dublin Port earlier in the day from the Netherlands. The operation involved officers from the Revenues Customs Service and the Garda National Drug Unit. No arrests have been made. New Dart services boost at peak time IARNRD ireann is to introduce a new regular 15-minute interval Dart, with additional services at peak times. This will see Greystones getting a major increase in services with every second Dart serving the Co Wicklow town, resulting in a service every 30 minutes. As part of a raft of timetable changes coming in on November 29, a new split and join service between Dublin and Galway/Mayo is also being introduced. For further information about the changes to the timetables, log on to www.irishrail.ie. Accessories designer Lulu Guinness, pictured in Brown Thomas on Grafton street to celebrate 20yrs of success in the fashion industry and showcase her Autumn Winter 2009 collection. Lulu is pictured with a one of a kind musical birdcage handbag designed by her. Picture: Photocall Anglo Irish to axe 230 jobs SCANDAL-HIT Anglo Irish Bank is to lay off 230 staff. The recession-hit lender, nationalised by the government earlier this year, plans to axe 110 workers in Ireland, 95 in the UK and 25 across the US and Europe. Bosses blamed the cuts on a planned reduction in the size of the bank and the transfer of around 28billion in loans to the National Assets Management Agency. The cuts will be introduced starting next week and will reduce the banks workforce to around 1,300 people. A second phase of redundancies will occur next year. BANK OF IRELAND has suffered almost 1bil- lion in losses in six months this year. The lender made a pre-tax loss of 979million for the half year to the end of September, compared with a profit of 647million last year. Across the group, the bank has more than 1.8bil- lion of loans that are impaired. Chief executive Richie Boucher gave a gloomy review yesterday with only a slight suggestion that the Irish economy was turning a corner. Economic conditions in Ireland were particularly challenging. The level of economic activity has contracted and the credit environment deteriorated, said Mr Boucher, adding: There are some indica- tions of a slowdown in the pace of economic de- cline in the UK and to some extent in Ireland. Bank of Ireland was expected to pass on 16bil- lion worth of loans to Irelands so-called bad bank, the National Assets Management Agency (Nama), at a discount. In its six-monthly review, the bank said a discount of 30 per cent was being explored but this figure could be reduced based on industry valuations. Mr Boucher said: Our impairment charge in the six months to September of 1.8billion reflects sig- nificant deterioration in asset quality in our prop- erty and construction portfolio, primarily landbank and development in Ireland. D Thursday, November 5, 2009 METRO index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html