A PREGNANT woman in premature labour had to be airlifted from Northern Ireland to Scotland by Royal Navy helicopter because of a lack of neonatal beds.

Karen Shaw, who is expecting twins and was on holiday in Coleraine, County Londonderry, went to the Causeway Hospital when she went into labour ten weeks early.

Hospital staff rang round every hospital in Northern Ireland but none of those with special baby units had two empty specialist neonatal cots.

Yesterday afternoon a helicopter from RAF Prestwick dashed across the Irish Sea to transfer the expectant mother to Dundee. At the last minute two beds were found at Wishaw in North Lanarkshire and the flight was diverted.

Amy Edmunds of Bliss, a charity which campaigns to improve neonatal care, said the need for an emergency airlift showed a worrying lack of specialist baby services across the UK.

She said advances in the care of premature babies meant a greater need for funding which was not currently being met: “Inappropriate transfers such as this are an all-too-common occurrence due to the shortage of neonatal nurses and lack of capacity in the services that care for sick and premature babies.

“We urge the government to commit the necessary resources so that these transfers can be avoided.”

A spokeswoman for Causeway Hospital said staff had rung every specialist baby unit in Northern Ireland and not found one with two spare cots. She said that normal procedure was to start ringing hospitals in Scotland but that this was ‘very rare’.

However the incident is similar to events last year which saw Deirdre Greer airlifted from Belfast to Glasgow to give birth to triplets. Mrs Greer, who lost Harry, one of her babies, now campaigns for better neonatal services.

Yesterday a spokeswoman for NHS Lanarkshire said Ms Shaw was being cared for at Wishaw hospital and was still in labour.

Northern Irish politicians said they were extremely concerned that no hospital in the province could admit her.

Sinn Fein Cllr Billy Leonard said: “It is very hard to imagine that emergency maternity treatment for a woman carrying twins cannot be delivered here.

“Causeway is meant to be a major hospital but yet again we are sending patients, albeit in a very particular situation, elsewhere.”

RAF spokesman Michael Mulford said the RAF regularly got requests from hospitals to move patients but said it was rare to be called out to Northern Ireland.

(02-15) 08:00 PST New York (AP) —

Treasury prices rose Friday after the New York Federal Reserve reported that manufacturing in its region contracted this month.

The New York Fed’s Empire State index of factory activity plunged almost 21 points to a negative 11.7 reading, the weakest level in almost three years. Readings below zero show shrinkage. February also marked the fourth straight decline for the index. Economists had expected a much healthier reading of 5.75, according to Thomson/IFR.

The report helps build a case that the economy is on the brink of recession, although a recession requires two consecutive quarters of contraction and can only be declared in hindsight.

Although the data has negative portents for the economy, it is helpful to the Treasury market, as investors generally turn to government-backed bonds when they are worried about the economy.

In addition, the report puts extra pressure on the Fed to continue cutting interest rates. The central bank cut the overnight Fed funds rate by 1.25 percentage points in January. Fixed-income investors want to see more rate cuts to rejuvenate ailing debt markets.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 11/32 to 97-26/32 with a yield of 3.76 percent, down from 3.82 percent late Thursday, according to BGCantor Market Data. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The 30-year long bond gained 20/32 to 96 19/32 with a yield of 4.58 percent, down from 4.65 percent the day before.

The 2-year note ticked up 1/32 to 100 16/32 with a 1.87 percent yield, down from 1.90 percent late Thursday.

In other data news, the Fed said industrial output rose modestly last month, due to strength in the utility sector. Industrial production increased 0.1 percent in January, in line with December’s rise and analysts’ expectations.

Separately, the Labor Department reported that U.S. import prices rose 1.7 percent in January, as oil prices jumped. In December, prices slipped 0.2 percent.

Demand for Treasurys Thursday also was stoked by a complex barrage of negative developments elsewhere in the credit markets. Since the subprime issue first surfaced last summer, Treasurys have been the asset of choice for investors spooked by the unraveling of normally stalwart forms of debt assets.

This week saw turmoil in the market for short-term auction-rate munis when bidders could not be found for weekly notes offered by a number of top-rated local government issuers. There also are mounting problems in the leveraged loan market, as well as some ongoing weakness in corporate short-term commercial paper.

“In 25 years of working in this business, I don’t believe I have seen more market disruption from so many different sources,” said Kevin Giddis, managing director of fixed-income trading at Morgan Keegan.

The unusual degree of queasiness about debt issued by highly reliable companies and municipalities is linked to worries about bond insurers that unwisely backed subprime debt. There are concerns that they may not be able to shore up enough capital to withstand an expected avalanche of defaults.

One of the wobbly bond insurers, FGIC Co., agreed to be split into two separate entities. One would house its structured finance business where its troubled subprime assets are sheltered. The other would contain the municipal bonds that FGIC backs which normally are considered desirable.

New York State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo lobbied for the rupture of FGIC and would like other insurers to follow suit. On Thursday FGIC lost its stellar “AAA” rating when Moody’s Investors Service downgraded it by two notches.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer Thursday warned that the bond insurers are facing a potential break-up by state regulators and gave them just a few working days to line up necessary capital.

December 20, 2007 — Hip discounter Target is putting off a decision on whether to sell its $7 billion credit card business, citing “current market conditions” as worries about weakening consumer credit escalate.

Wall Street has speculated that Target, which for years had pooh-poohed the idea of selling the operation, which has about $7 billion in credit-card receivables, has been prodded to make the move by activist Bill Ackman, who disclosed a nearly 10 percent stake in Target this summer.

Ackman, who runs the $6 billion hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Minneapolis-based Target, which had aimed to decide on a possible sale this month, now says it could be another three months before it makes up its mind. The delay is a fresh sign that logical buyers for Target’s portfolio - big financial firms like Citigroup and GE Capital - are skittish as the imploding housing market and tightening credit hits shoppers’ wallets.

“In the right environment at the right price, Target would probably consider it,” says Todd Slater, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets. But right now, “there’s no reason to fire-sale it.”

Target, which hawks “cheap chic” fashions from designers like Isaac Mizrahi and Michael Graves, had long argued that its credit-card portfolio was a key contributor to profits. But in September, the company announced it had hired Goldman Sachs to explore a possible sale.

Ackman’s hedge fund has pressed other big chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s to cut spending, buy back shares and sell off assets. That has fueled speculation that he’s rattling cages about the credit cards.