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Garda forensics officers outside the Lucan home of a couple who were held hostage during yesterday's €1.3 million robbery.

Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

'Honest mistake' defence subject of March poll
The Government is planning to address the fallout of the statutory rape crisis in a referendum next March which would propose removing the defence of "honest mistake" for an adult who has sex with a child.
Conroy calls crisis talks after €1.3m kidnap raid
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has called crisis talks with the State's biggest security companies following the robbery yesterday of €1.3 million from a cash-in-transit van in Carlow.
Developer joins U2 stars in €150m Clarence project
Dublin's Clarence Hotel, owned by U2's Bono and the Edge, in partnership with property developer Paddy McKillen, is to be redeveloped at a cost of €150 million as "one of the most spectacular city hotels in Europe".

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World

Executions generate Sunni fury
IRAQ: The execution of two of Saddam Hussein's henchmen and co-defendants tried for mass murder yesterday generated Sunni fury and international criticism when one of the condemned men was accidentally decapitated on the gallows. p
Political climate changes for Ahmadinejad
IRAN: Iran's MPs have rebelled while their president is away, prompting speculation about his future in power, writes Robert Tait in Tehran p
Rice plans summit with Abbas and Olmert
MIDDLE EAST: US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said yesterday she would bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together soon for what she called informal talks on how to set up a Palestinian state. p
Bomb suspects were under surveillance
BRITAIN: British police put five members of an Islamist terror cell under surveillance more than a year before they tried to carry out "murderous suicide bombings" on the London transport network, a court heard yesterday. p
EU celebrates Slovenia's transition to euro zone
SLOVENIA: European leaders gathered in Slovenia yesterday to congratulate it on becoming the first former communist state to adopt the euro, 15 years after its independence from Yugoslavia was recognised by the EU. p

Ireland

Ahern says he had misgivings over Mater site
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern claimed yesterday he had had certain misgivings about the siting of the new national children's hospital on the campus of Dublin's Mater hospital. p
Heaney wins TS Eliot prize for poetry
Every artist begins a journey but few have sustained it as eloquently and as doggedly as Seamus Heaney who has won this year's TS Eliot prize for poetry. The award, worth £10,000, was presented last night in London for Heaney's latest collection, District and Circle . It has previously been won by Les Murray and Ted Hughes, as well as Paul Muldoon and Michael Longley. p
Divers to resume search for missing fishermen
Teams of Naval Service and Garda divers are hoping to locate the bodies of five missing crew members of the Père Charles today, while shoreline and sea searches are to continue in Waterford and Wexford for two missing crew members of the Honeydew II. p
Funding for key roads to hit €1.5bn this year
Another year of record funding for road building is to be announced by Minister for Transport Martin Cullen this afternoon. p
Plan for council tenants to purchase their flats
More than 20,000 tenants of local authority flats are to have the opportunity to buy their homes under new legislation being drafted by the Department of the Environment. p
Knock airport board has not discussed serving US military
The board of Knock airport yesterday distanced itself from a suggestion by one of its members, Ulick McEvaddy, that the airport could be opened to US military aircraft. p
Action to restrain broadcast settled
The widow of the late educational publisher Albert Folens has settled her High Court action aimed at restraining the broadcast of an interview with her late husband as part of a documentary on Ireland's Nazis. p
Search for peace in Middle East more urgent than ever - Ahern
A comprehensive package to settle several Middle East crises is now more urgently needed than at any time over the past 60 years, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said. p
Blair believes Paisley remarks are significant
British prime minister Tony Blair has attached considerable significance to a statement from DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, responding to a British government warning that if devolution is not restored by March 26th then Stormont will shut down "indefinitely". p

Finance

Firm of Taoiseach's friend in liquidation
A company owned by Dublin port chairman Joe Burke, one of the men who loaned €49,500 to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, is being liquidated with debts of between €900,000 and €1.5 million. p
DAA to sell stake in British airport
The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) intends to sell its 24 per cent stake in the UK's fifth largest airport, but only if there is "quality" to the offers received. p
Republic hopes to double annual trade with Saudi Arabia
Ireland hopes to double its annual trade with Saudi Arabia to €1 billion in value "very quickly", Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said in Riyadh yesterday. p

Sport

Reid may miss rest of qualifying campaign
SOCCER: Republic of Ireland midfielder Steven Reid faces a lengthy extension to his period on the sidelines and could miss the rest of Ireland's European Championship qualification campaign after it was confirmed by his club yesterday that he must undergo surgery for a cruciate ligament injury sustained at the end of last week. p
Brennan denies Croke Park backdown
GAELIC GAMES/Match regulation proposals: GAA president Nickey Brennan has denied the revised match regulations for the forthcoming National Leagues represent a climb down by Croke Park in the face of manager discontent. As a result of the changes, a meeting scheduled for last night between representatives of intercounty managers and GAA officials was deemed unnecessary. p
Winter of content, and spring not far behind
On Rugby: And so the good times continue to roll. Ireland clearly fed off the strong starts made by the provinces in October, and their excellence in November assuredly helped Munster and Leinster through the dark and demanding mid-winter. Now Ireland look like assembling for the Six Nations buoyed by those two progressing to the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup. p