A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Gardaí name caravanfire victim
Gardaí have named the man who died in a caravan fire in Kinvara, Co Galway, during the weekend.
He was Thomas Somers (55), of College Road, Galway, and originally from Co Meath. Mr Somers, a widower with no children, worked as an electrician. Gardaí sealed off the area around Mr Somers's caravan at Ballybrangan, just outside Kinvara village, on Monday. The fire broke out just after 5am.
Mr Somers's body was taken to University College Hospital, Galway for a postmortem.
Gardaí in Gort are continuing their investigations into the cause of the fire and can be contacted at (091) 636400.
Two injured in motorcycle crash
A 24-year-old motorcyclist was critically ill in hospital last night following a crash which has also left a female pillion passenger with serious injuries.
The pair were travelling on a motorbike which collided with a Citröen car near the Canal Bridge on the Limerick to Killaloe Road last Monday evening.
The driver of the motorcycle suffered serious head injuries in the collision and was in the intensive care unit of the Mid Western Regional Hospital last night.
The female pillion passenger, who is also 24, suffered back injuries and was also in the Mid Western Regional Hospital last night where her condition was described as "comfortable".
The driver of the car, who had be cut from his vehicle, was not seriously injured and was discharged from hospital after been treated for shock.
Two rescued off Clare coast
Two people were rescued off the Co Clare coast yesterday after their boat developed engine problems and started drifting dangerously close to cliffs.
The alarm was raised shortly after 3pm when a woman at Liscannor pier observed the small craft drifting towards the rocks on the south side of the village.
She raised the alarm and a rescue operation was launched.
A rescue team from nearby Lahinch and the Doolin-based Irish Coast Guard Unit were sent to the scene while the Coast Guard helicopter was despatched from its base at Shannon airport.
The Lahinch and Doolin teams arrived at the scene about 15 minutes later as the weather in the area began to deteriorate.
Visibility was down to just half a mile by the time they reached the scene. However, they managed to take the boat on tow.
The occupants of the 17ft leisure craft, two men in their 40s from Limerick, were taken ashore safely at Liscannor soon after 4pm. They were uninjured.
It is understood the men had been fishing in the bay when their boat developed a fuel leak and ran dry.
'Rossport Five' give account
Co Mayo men who spent 94 days in Cloverhill Prison last year for their opposition to the onshore Corrib Gas pipeline have contributed extensively to a new book about their experiences which will be published in November.
Rossport 5: Our Story has been compiled and edited by Dr Mark Garavan, a lecturer in sociology at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, Castlebar.
Banks to pay 90% of cashescort costs
The Department of Justice has said that in future the main banks will have to pay 90 per cent of the cost of the provision of Garda cash transportation escorts.
Under a new five-year deal agreed with the Department of Justice, the banks are expected to pay out around €5 million a year to the Government for Garda cash escorts.
Since 2003, the banks have been paying €3 million annually for this service. Earlier this year, the banks paid around €6 million to the Department of Defence towards the cost of cash escorts provided by military personnel.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said last night that agreement had been reached in principle with the Irish Bankers' Federation on a new deal on payments for the provision of cash escorts by gardaí.
He said that the new arrangement would see the banks paying 90 per cent of the total costs. Until now, the banks have paid a fixed amount to the State, regardless of the costs involved.
The spokesman said the State had agreed to meet 10 per cent of the cost on the grounds that the safe transportation of cash was in the public interest.
The new arrangements will come into effect in full from next year.
Two released in sex assault inquiry
Gardaí say two men arrested in relation to alleged sexual assaults on two teenage girls at Irish colleges in Loughanure and Derrybeg over the weekend have been released.
Files are being prepared for the DPP.
The alleged attacks happened when the teenage girls, believed to be from Co Cavan and Co Down, were attending night-time activities.
One girl claims she was attacked near the GAA Club in Derrybeg, while the second teenager alleges she was assaulted in a holiday home at Loughanure, just 100 yards from her place of residence.
The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs has initiated its own investigation into the attacks. The Department provides 50 per cent funding for householders who provide accommodation for the Irish students at colleges in Gaeltacht areas of the country.
Two arrested in cocaine raid
Gardaí arrested two men and seized what they suspect to be pure cocaine when they searched a house in Navan last night. They also recovered €21,300 in cash.
The men, both in their 40s and from the town, were being detained in Kells Garda station. The value of the drug is estimated at €300,000.
Irish spending longer on phone
The Irish are a nation of chatterboxes and are talking longer on the telephone than before, a survey shows.
Eircom's National Phone Survey shows the average telephone call now lasts four minutes.
In 2005 the average length of each call made by an Eircom customer was three minutes and 54 seconds.
Boys to face trial in 'threats' case
Three teenagers who allegedly surrounded a man and threatened him with a syringe as he walked along the Liffey boardwalk in Dublin are to face trial in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 16-year-old boys from north Dublin were charged at the Dublin Children's Court with the robbery of the man, who is in his 20s, at the Liffey boardwalk, at Bachelors Walk, on June 1st last. Garda Paraic Lynch, of Store Street Station, said it was alleged that one of the trio threatened the man that he would "stick him with a syringe".
The case was adjourned until September when they are to be served with books of evidence and returned for trial.