A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Family house dispute to go to mediation
A dispute between an 86-year-old widow and her daughter and son-in-law over the proposed sale of the house she shared with them is to go to mediation, the High Court heard yesterday.
Bridget Dillon had obtained a temporary injunction preventing her daughter, Margaret Murphy, and her husband, Denis Murphy, from selling the house at Lakelands, Naas, Co Kildare, worth €450,000, before what Mrs Dillon said was their planned move to Canada. Yesterday, Mr Justice George Birmingham adjourned the case to later this month to allow mediation take place.
Mrs Dillon claims she left the home at Lakelands to stay temporarily with her sister following a row over attendance at a granddaughter's wedding.
She claims she returned a week later to find the locks on the house had been changed and said she has been made homeless without any means to secure alternative accommodation.
She claims she and her late husband sold an apartment they had been living in so that the Murphys could buy the Lakelands house.
Grandfather admits rape
A 76-year-old man has pleaded guilty to raping his nine-year-old granddaughter in a Co Wexford town. The west Dublin pensioner admitted he raped her in July 1994 and also pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to sexually assaulting her between 1992 and 1994.
He also admitted he indecently assaulted her older sister at his home between July 10th and September 30th, 1993, when she was seven years old.
His guilty pleas to the three sample charges came before a jury had been scheduled to be sworn in for his trial on an indictment that had a total of 58 counts.
Mr Justice Paul Carney directed that the man's name be entered on the register of sexual offenders and ordered the preparation of victim impact statements.
He remanded him on continuing bail for sentence in October.
FBI agents due in Bush threat case
Over a dozen FBI agents are expected in Galway today to give evidence in the trial of a man who is accused of making threats against president George Bush. Declan Noel O'Shea (37) Emerson Avenue, Salthill, Galway is charged with persistently using a phone to annoy, inconvenience or cause needless anxiety to another person between January 6th, 2003 and January 10th, 2004.
He is also charged with sending menacing phone messages on February 6th and 7th, 2004.
Galway Circuit Court was told last year that the charges involved phone and bomb threats made to president Bush.
Man jailed for damaging cars
A man who caused over €7,000 of damage to three cars in Rathmines, Dublin, has been jailed for two years by Judge Donagh McDonagh at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Shane Bradley (23) with an address in Fairview and formerly of Belgrave Square, Rathmines, pleaded guilty to damaging a BMW and two Mercedes in Belgrave Square on July 10th, 2005.
Man gets 8 years in firearm case
An alcoholic father of one who started drinking when he was about 11 years old has been given an eight-year sentence for having a firearm and assaulting gardaí. Ian Doyle (21) Tymon Road North, Tallaght, Dublin, changed his plea to guilty during his trial in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on the firearm charge last March after a criminal acquaintance, John Berney, was shot dead.
He told gardaí he didn't co-operate on that charge because he was afraid of Berney, who was in his company when gardaí arrested him for having the revolver at Bancroft Close on July 22nd, 2006.