• Two sharks die in Dingle aquarium

  Two sandbar sharks which died at the Dingle Ocean World Aquarium in Co Kerry after a heating malfunction are unlikely to be replaced because the remaining sharks could turn on any newcomers, the director of the facility, Mr Kevin Flannery, said yesterday. p
  

• Church of Ireland Notes

  Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, there will be a sung Eucharist and Ashing at 6 p.m. and the service, which will last for about an hour, will include the singing of Allegri's haunting Miserere. p
  

• Former employee wins compensation

  Blarney Castle Knitwear Ltd has been ordered to pay over £21,000 to a former employee who resigned "in the heat of the moment" after a row with a supervisor. Mr John McSweeney, of Blarney, Co Cork, had worked for 28 years with the company. p
  

• Methodist Notes

  Methodism, with more or less justification from time to time, has prided itself on the way in which it has given scope to the gifts and skills of lay people. One of the more recent expressions of this has been the development of the lay witness movement. p
  

• Judge had keys to Jack White's Inn, trial told

  Mrs Catherine Nevin told staff at Jack White's Inn that none of them could stay on the night her husband was shot dead, her trial heard yesterday. Mrs Nevin is accused of the murder of her husband, Mr Tom Nevin. A former worker at the inn, Ms Liz Hudson, of Barndarrig, Co Wicklow, said this had never happened before. Ms Hudson also told the trial that "Judge O Buachalla" was well known on the premises and at one stage had a set of keys to the premises. Ms Hudson is the first former worker at the inn to b give evidence since Monday, when the jury heard from Ms Jane Murphy, of Redcross, Co Wicklow, who was a cleaner at the inn from 1987 until the shooting. Ms Murphy's evidence was that "the judge from Arklow" had visited and stayed there. p
  

• Judge Pattwell decision jailing woman for fraud overturned

  The High Court yesterday overturned a District Court decision relating to a woman who was sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment for possession of forged £20 sterling notes, knowing them to be forged. p
  

• Inquest told of discovery of baby's body in grave in bog

  An inquest in Letterkenny yesterday heard about the events leading to the finding of the body of a new-born infant in a shallow grave in a bog in Inishowen, Co Donegal, last June. p
  

• Mullaghmore appeal ruling is issued

  A decision has been made by An Bord Pleanala in the long-running Mullaghmore saga, but parties to the appeal will have to wait until Monday morning to find out what the board's decision is. p
  

• Murder accused further remanded

  The man charged with murdering his infant nephew was further remanded in custody to next Friday at a sitting of Drogheda District Court yesterday. p
  

• Fire hearing ends after 281 days

  The hearing of the longest-ever action in the High Court ended yesterday after 281 days. Costs in the action will total millions of pounds. p
  

• Couple dispute price of house

  A married couple have asked the Circuit Civil Court to direct a local authority to sell them their county council home, currently worth £125,000, for a previously agreed figure of £24,300. p
  

• Man gets 5 years for abusing child

  A Dublin man who sexually abused his daughter has been jailed for five years. The abuse began when the girl was five and continued until she was 15, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard. p
  

• `Definite line' on Cork attack

  Gardai yesterday confirmed that they were following a definite line of inquiry into an incident in Cork city in which two masked men beat up a young woman, put a knife to her throat and tried to cut off one of her fingers. p
  

• Rapist suffering from `delusions'

  A man has had his sentence for rape and buggery adjourned by the Central Criminal Court because he is suffering from "paranoid delusions" and needs treatment. Armando Marques (42), single, with an address at Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin, has pleaded guilty previously to raping and buggering a Dublin woman on December 12th, 1998. p
  

• Judge critical of Minister for inaction on children's units

  A High Court judge yesterday said he could not understand why the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, had still not decided whether to appeal his orders on units for at-risk children. Last week, the judge directed the Minister to take all steps necessary to build and bring into operation several high-support and special care units for more than 40 troubled children in the seven health board areas outside the Eastern Health Board. p
  

• Judge rejects call for second TUI newsletter on pay deal

  A High Court judge yesterday refused to grant an interlocutory order directing the TUI executive to publish a new edition of its newsletter giving both sides of the argument for and against the proposed new national agreement, the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. p
  

• Bail for man on charge of garda's capital murder

  A man has been charged with the capital murder of a Garda sergeant who died as a result of burns received in an alleged arson attack at Tallaght Garda station last year. He was later released on bail by the High Court yesterday. p
  

• Glen protesters ordered to jail

  Three road protesters were ordered to jail by the High Court yesterday in the continuing controversy over Wicklow County Council's proposed dual carriageway scheme through the Glen of the Downs. Meanwhile, one of four men imprisoned two weeks ago for refusing to give an undertaking not to interfere with the roadworks, was freed yesterday after he gave the required undertaking. p
  

• Thousands mourn president of ILCU

  Tributes were paid yesterday to the president of the Irish League of Credit Unions, Mr Frank Lynch, as thousands of mourners attended his funeral Mass in his native Blarney, Co Cork. p
  

• Hospitals passed on placental tissue for use in cosmetics

  Two Dublin maternity hospitals have admitted sending human placenta to a French firm in the early 1990s, believing that it would be used in the manufacture of cosmetics. p
  

• Lawyers debate jury's decision in stabbing case

  Questions have been raised in legal circles about the circumstances surrounding the acquittal in the Central Criminal Court this week of a woman who stabbed her husband to death. p
  

• Call to turn cemetery into heritage park

  Mr Gay Mitchell, Fine Gael TD for Dublin South Central, has launched a campaign to have Goldenbridge cemetery in Inchicore turned into a national heritage park. p
  

• PPF Tax Clause

  Text of yesterday's Government statement on "Taxation and Programme for Prosperity and Fairness": p
  

• ASTI seeks greater level of teaching support

  More detailed school planning, in which the Department of Education agrees to provide a greater level of teaching support for each subject area, has been proposed by the main secondary teaching union. p
  

• Ahern supports view of union leaders on PPF proposals

  The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has confirmed that his understanding of the tax cuts provided for in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness was the same as that of senior trade union leaders. p
  

• Bray Head golf course to blend with landscape, hearing told

  Although a significant number of golf clubs exist on Howth Head, they are being developed without excessive damage to the visual amenity of the area, a planning hearing in Bray, Co Wicklow, was told yesterday. p
  

• Amnesty urges international court

  Amnesty International is lobbying the Government to ratify, by the end of September, the statute establishing a permanent International Criminal Court. p
  

• Human rights office to be established in Chechnya

  A human rights office will shortly be set up in Chechnya to take testimonies about human rights abuses and prepare reports, according to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. p
  

• Asylum-seekers plan rejected

  The Irish Refugee Council has rejected a proposal to introduce "flotels" to house asylum-seekers. It described the idea as "ill thought-out and a reactive response to the housing crisis". p
  

• Veronica Guerin plaque

  The Government is determined violent crime will never stalk the State so brutally and freely as it did in 1996 when journalist Veronica Guerin and Det Garda Jerry McCabe were shot dead, the Taoiseach said last night. p
  

• Legislation on tax compliance by TDs urged

  Fine Gael has called on the Government to introduce legislation requiring all Dail and local authority candidates to be tax compliant before contesting the next election. p
  

• Difficulties for RTE's effort to get 40% share of digital TV

  RTE faces difficult negotiations in its effort to secure a 40 per cent share of the company which will control the digital television transmission network, it was made clear yesterday. p
  

• SF hopes US can rebuild peace process

  Next week's visit to Northern Ireland by two of President Clinton's key advisers was a clear indication of the Washington administration's determination to help re-establish the North's political institutions, Mr Martin McGuinness said yesterday. p
  

• Aircraft had to return to Dublin airport

  Emergency services at Dublin Airport were put on alert yesterday as an aircraft with 176 passengers on board was forced to land. Five fire tenders stood by as the Boeing 757, experiencing problems with wing flaps, landed at 9.45 a.m. The aircraft had just taken off for Malaga. p
  

• Man missing from fishing vessel

  A Laois man is missing and presumed dead after he fell yesterday from an Irish-registered trawler about 70 miles off Land's End. A spokesman for Falmouth Coast Guard said last night the Dun Eochalla was heading for its home port of Waterford. The search had been called off, he added. p
  

• Funeral today of Drogheda child

  The funeral of 18-month-old Drogheda child Jack Brennan, found dead in a quarry near the town on Wednesday, will take place this morning. The removal will be from Hill of Rath, Tullyallen, at 11.30 a.m. to St Mary's Church for funeral Mass at 12.15 p.m. and burial afterwards at Calvary Cemetery. p
  

• Craftworkers win 31% pay increase

  Pay increases of up to 31 per cent have been won by 100 craftworkers in Dublin Port as a result of a new restructuring and productivity deal. The increases will range from 2331.4 per cent and are in addition to increases already awarded under Partnership 2000. p
  

• Youth (17) shot in right knee

  A 17-year-old youth was found with a gunshot wound in the York Road area of Belfast last night. p
  

• Five held over cocaine seizure

  Three women and two men were arrested last night in connection with a seizure of £200,000 worth of cocaine in the Oliver Bond flats complex in central Dublin. p
  

• SF is criticised on its strategy

  A former IRA commander in Belfast and leader of republican prisoners in the Maze has criticised the Sinn Fein leadership and its political strategy. Mr Brendan Hughes said republican goals had not been achieved and without the IRA's armed campaign politics had no substance. p
  

• Judicial review of appointees to Parades Commission sought

  The make-up of the new Parades Commission in Northern Ireland is to be challenged in the High Judicial review of appointees to Parades Commission Court in Belfast. p
  

• Adams insists British must restore the institutions

  The Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, has warned against placing too much significance on the latest round of consultations aimed at getting the Northern institutions working again. p
  

• Council persisted despite objectors

  Opposition to the provision of Traveller accommodation in Meath dates back to the early 1980s. Meath County Council is today described by the Irish Traveller Movement as one local authority which pressed ahead with its plans despite local opposition, and succeeded in providing accommodation which could "coexist well with settled housing". p
  

• Time to tackle NIMBY, negative attitude head on

  "There is a universal agreement that the Traveller community in Ireland today should no longer be obliged to live in conditions which are reminiscent of refugee camps." So wrote Senator Mary Kelly in her preface to the Report Of The Task force on the Travelling Community, published in July 1995 in her capacity as its chairwoman. p
  

• Fears and experiences of settled community must be addressed

  At the outset I wish to make clear that in no way does this article refer to all Travellers but to the significant minority who seem to cause problems suffered by all Travellers. I agree that a majority of Travellers are law-abiding and decent people and the following commentary attempts to address the problems that the settled community have with this minority. p
  

• Defence policy `lacks a coherent strategy'

  The Government-appointed consultant who reviewed the Defence Forces has dismissed the White Paper on Defence as contradictory, negative and lacking in vision and has described its publication earlier this week as a farce. p
  

• Plucking victims from the waters

  Blinking, sodden and smelly, dressed in the Western hand-me-downs of Africa's poor, they stumble off their first and probably last helicopter ride. These are the lucky ones, who have lost their farms and possessions, and maybe even some of their family, but who have escaped from Mozambique's latest catastrophe with their lives intact. p
  

• Maputo fears cholera epidemic as numbers affected increase

  A cholera outbreak is looming in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, a health ministry official warned yesterday. "We are on the verge of a cholera epidemic in Maputo," Mr Jose Chi vale, a ministry of health epidemiologist, told a regular daily meeting of aid workers. He said that cholera cases had risen from a previous six a week to 23 a week. p
  

• Irish aid agencies report positive response to Mozambique appeal

  United Nations agencies have received more than $32 million in financial contributions to help up to a million victims of the flooding in Mozambique, the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said yesterday. p
  

• The Words We Use

  On a recent visit to Co Carlow the car I was a passenger in was stopped by a good-natured garda who inquired of my driver how in the name of the second person of the Holy Trinity could he drive with his windscreen claamed with the muck of half the county. p
  

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