In short

Todays other stories in brief

Three to pitch for regional radio licence

Three groups have been shortlisted by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to pitch for the new regional licence covering the midlands and northeast and aimed at 15 to 34-year-olds.

They are: i107FM, headed by former 98FM chief executive Dan Healy and was recently awarded a licence for the northwest; Red FM, which has a youth licence in Cork city; and Spin FM, a Denis O'Brien- controlled youth station in Dublin that has been awarded a regional licence for the southwest.

Public hearings will take place on April 16th in the Tullamore Court Hotel, Co Offaly. The BCI will award the licence at its May board meeting.

John Lewis to open in Republic

UK department store chain John Lewis has announced plans to open at least 10 new stores over the next decade, one of which is likely to be in the Republic.

The proposals are in addition to the company's previous expansion plan, which included opening nine new stores and relocating three others. One of the new stores announced under that plan will be in Sprucefield Park, near Lisburn, in Co Antrim. This is due to open in 2010.

A spokeswoman for John Lewis said yesterday the Republic was being considered in the same way as other parts of the UK. She said John Lewis had already shown its commitment to the island of Ireland with its investment in Sprucefield.

Essar, Vodafone work on deal

India's Essar group hopes to hammer out over the next month a shareholder agreement with Vodafone, the UK mobile group that is set to buy a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar.

The agreement should ease the way for Vodafone to complete its takeover of India's fourth-largest mobile operator. (Financial Times service)

Date set for Taylor court proceedings

The High Court has fixed March 20th for the hearing of proceedings brought by the liquidator of collapsed finance company Taylor Asset Managers against the company's founder, Tony Taylor, and other directors.

Last month Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan ruled that an affidavit by Mr Taylor cannot be used in the court proceedings against the other directors, who include TV personality Eddie Hobbs.

Row delays Airbus announcement

Renewed conflict between French and German shareholders of Airbus yesterday forced the European aircraft maker to cancel today's scheduled announcement of a critical and controversial restructuring plan.

EADS, Airbus's parent company, said a board meeting had broken up on Sunday without agreement on how work would be distributed on development and manufacture of the A350, the company's next family of big jets.

The national tensions have dogged the group for three years. - (Financial Times service

Ormonde releases drilling results

Exploration group Ormonde Mining has released new drilling results from its La Zarza project in Spain, saying it had found intersections containing high-grade gold and silver. The company is now updating its resource estimates.

Conroy director appointed

Conroy Diamonds and Gold has named corporate finance specialist Séamus FitzPatrick as a non- executive director.