THE 20th Orkney International Science Festival continues this week.

The seven-day festival - which features speakers from around the world - opened on Thursday. Pushing back the boundaries will be a theme of this year's festival, which highlights the role of science as exploration of the unknown.

Further details and reviews of the festival will be in Orkney Today on Thursday.

STROMNESS Lifeboat was launched on Sunday to go to the aid of the local yacht Valhalla, which suffered machinery failure near Houton in Scapa Flow.

THE apparent water quality problem in the supply to parts of Deerness and the surrounding area on the Orkney mainland has now been resolved, Scottish Water has reported.

Testing of the water in the previously affected area has confirmed that it is safe to drink and customers no longer need to boil their water. The provisional result from Thursday has not been confirmed by Friday's test.

A converted seed store in Kirkwall and a modern rural house with spectacular views of Shetland's Bay of Skellister have been named the winners of the Inverness Architectural Association (IAA) Design Awards for Orkney and Shetland.

Kirkwall-based chartered architect Leslie Burgher won the 'new life for old' category for converting the late 19th century store building in the centre of the car park next to the Albert Hotel into a comfortable and practical office building, named Covingtrie House, for Clark Thomson Insurance Brokers.

NORSEPHARM Ltd have been given the go ahead to open a pharmacy at Vetquoy Road in Dounby. NHS Orkney announced yesterday, Thursday, that the National Appeals Panel of the Scottish health Service has upheld the appeal lodged by the company, which reverses the position taken earlier this year by the Orkney Pharmacy Practices Committee.

The panel took the view that the provision of new pharmaceutical services was necessary to ensure adequate provision of services in the neighbourhood.

NHS Orkney is now negotiating a contract with Norsepharm Ltd and the pharmacy is expected to open in the next few months.