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Eileen Reid (left) as Widow Twankie and Joe Conlon as the Genie arrive by rickshaw at the Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin, yesterday to publicise the new venue for their festive pantomime Aladdin. The show previews from December 19th and opens on the 26th.
Photograph: Matt Kavanagh
Report finds secondary pupils work to fund alcohol-fuelled social lives
Most second-level pupils are working part-time, not because of financial hardship, but to fund their hectic alcohol-based social lives, a new report claims.
RTE to seek €45 increase in cost of licence
RTÉ is to set to apply to the Government for a television licence fee increase that would bring the cost of a having a TV to around €152 a year.McCreevy refuses to back down on house-buyers' grant
A defiant Minister for Finance is refusing to back down on the controversial decision to abolish the first-time house-buyers' grant, despite growing revolt on the issue from backbenchers.
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World
Blix due in Baghdad today to begin arms check task
THE UN/IRAQ: The chief UN weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix, is to fly from Larnaca to Baghdad this morning to begin the task of finding and eliminating any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. pGuards foil hijack on Israeli flight
ISRAEL: Israeli security guards have foiled a suspected hijacking attempt on an El Al Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, a Turkish airport official and Israel Radio said. pItalian ex-prime minister guilty in murder case
ITALY: An Italian court has sentenced former prime minister Giulio Andreotti to 24 years in prison on charges of complicity in the 1979 murder of a journalist, his lawyers said last night. p
Finance
Credit unions anxious over regulation Bill
The Irish League of Credit Unions has deferred introduction of its new funding structure, and is seeking an "urgent" meeting with the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, about the proposed new single financial regulatory authority. The league is concerned that changes which the Minister is proposing to the legislation underpinning the new financial regulatory authority will undermine the "ethos and special character" of credit unions. pBankers hint rate cut may be on the way
Members of the European Central Bank's (ECB) governing council have fuelled speculation that a cut in interest rates is on the way. They defended the ECB's monetary policy against charges that it is strangling economic growth and dismissed fears of Japanese-style deflation in the euro zone. p
Ireland
Governments to meet on reviving agreement
The British and Irish governments will this week attempt to push forward with a new two-pronged initiative to pave the way towards the full reactivation of the institutions of the Belfast Agreement. pIrish priest stabbed to death in South Africa
An Irish priest has been killed in South Africa. Father Declan Collins, a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco, was assaulted with a brick before being stabbed to death with a kitchen knife at his residence in what appeared to be an attempted robbery at the parish church in the Ennerdale township, Johannesburg, at 9 p.m. on Saturday night pBody found in search for missing hiker
The body of a man found in the Wicklow mountains yesterday afternoon is believed to be that of a 74-year-old man who went missing on Saturday. pReform urged to aid 'redundancy' of IRA
The British government, by bringing its security services under control, could facilitate the "redundancy" of the IRA, Prof Monica McWilliams told the Women's Coalition annual conference on Saturday. pNew law on citizens to affect fraudulent marriages
Non-nationals who marry Irish citizens after next week will no longer have the automatic right to acquire Irish citizenship after a certain period of marriage. pCabinet agrees spatial policy to guide future development
The Government has agreed a National Spatial Strategy, which will act as the planning framework for development over the next 20 years. pCarolyn Swift will be remembered for unique contribution to theatre
Carolyn Swift, writer, director, actress, dance critic and champion of fringe theatre, died in Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross, Dublin, at the weekend following a long illness. pWhitaker named Ireland's greatest living person
Dr T.K. Whitaker was named Greatest Living Irish Person at the ESB/Rehab People of the Year Awards at the weekend. pNon-EU students in protest over high fees
Foreign students studying at Irish universities have for the first time raised serious concerns about high tuition fees. p
