In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

Dublin airport users up 7%

More than two million passengers passed through Dublin airport in May, a 7 per cent increase on the same month last year.

This was the first time the two million barrier was broken in May. The Dublin Airport Authority said 8.6 million passengers passed through the airport since January.

In May, passenger traffic to Europe rose by 14 per cent to more than one million. Traffic to Britain was down slightly to 729,000, while the numbers flying on transatlantic routes also declined to 115,000.

The numbers flying on domestic routes was up 3 per cent to 74,000. Journeys to the Middle East and Africa were up 6 per cent to 15,000, while 8,000 used Dublin airport as a stopover.

Pakflatt wins contract in US

Derry-based Pakflatt has won a multimillion dollar contract with US firm Diebold for the supply of voting booths.

Diebold provides election technology to a number of US states and will use the booths for its optical scan voting systems, which automate the count process by scanning paper ballots.

Ryanair unveils 13 new routes

Ryanair has unveiled plans to launch 13 new routes from Stockholm Skavsta airport in Sweden. The departures will start in October when Ryanair adds two new Boeing 737-800 aircraft to its fleet in Sweden.

Liberty Media bid for Intelsat

The auction for Intelsat experienced a dramatic twist yesterday as John Malone's Liberty Media and EchoStar Communications joined forces to bid for the private equity-owned satellite operator, which could be worth up to $6 billion (€4.5 billion) in a sale.

People familiar with the matter said potential buyers were putting the final touches on their offers and Intelsat could strike a deal within days.

If a deal is reached, it would offer a remarkable gain for the four private-equity groups which bought Intelsat in 2004 amid a wave of consolidation. - (Financial Times service)

Boutique hotel for Marriott

Marriott is developing a boutique hotel brand with Ian Schrager, credited as the man who revived the boutique hotel concept, and plans 100 hotels for the US, Europe and Asia.

The partnership aims to have five hotel deals signed by the end of the year and the remainder built or under development within 10 years. They aim to recruit world-class architects to build what they call "one-of-a-kind" hotels. - (Financial Times service)

Colgate warns on fakes

Colgate Palmolive, the US consumer products company, was yesterday drawn into a mounting debate over the safety of food and consumer products imported from China, after it warned that counterfeit versions of its toothpaste being sold in the US contained a poisonous chemical.

It said there were indications that counterfeit toothpaste sold in some "dollar stores" in the northeast US may contain diethylene glycol, a substance blamed last year for scores of deaths from Chinese-made cough medicine in several central American countries .- (Financial Times service)

TeliaSonera network plan

TeliaSonera, the largest Nordic telecommunications group, should be forced to hive off its fixed-line network to allow greater competition in the broadband internet market, the Swedish telecoms regulator recommended yesterday.

The proposal of local-loop unbundling could affect the cabinet's plan to sell the state's remaining 37 per cent stake by 2010. - (Financial Times service)