A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Taoiseach to meet North parties
The Taoiseach is to meet members of the SDLP and the Progressive Unionist Party on Thursday in Dublin as part of a series of meetings with Northern parties in the wake of IRA decommissioning.
Officials are also working to arrange a meeting between Bertie Ahern and the DUP for later this week, while he also hopes to meet British prime minister Tony Blair at some stage over the coming month.
Eight years for having cannabis
A man found with more than €1 million worth of cannabis has been jailed for eight years by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Fergus Bennett (28), Emmett Road, Inchicore, Dublin, pleaded guilty to possessing nearly 163kg of cannabis in May 2004 in Phibsboro, Dublin.
Irish food to be marketed in Asia
A major marketing development drive to sell Irish food and drink in Asia is to be spearheaded by An Bord Bia, which recently announced it would spend €10 million marketing Irish beef in Europe.
The Government has earmarked €300,000 for a study to develop opportunities in the retail, food service and ingredients markets mainly in Asia but also in the new EU states.
The money will be used to finance market research particularly in China as a follow-on to the visit there earlier this year by the Taoiseach and Cabinet colleagues, including the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan.
Irish food exports to China doubled in a few years to reach €30 million by 2004. The Government would like to see at least double that again over the next three years.
Prostitute is given suspended term
A prostitute who led a client to a gang of three men who then forced him into a flat and robbed him has been given a two-year suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Annette Ward (27), Pimlico, Dublin, pleaded guilty to robbing the victim in March 2003.
The court heard that Ward approached the man on South Richmond Street. She told him she was a prostitute and asked him if he wanted "to avail of her business". They had a conversation and walked on together.
The victim noticed a group of three men standing at the top of a lane at Harrington Street and Ward told him they were going to rob him. One produced a knife and demanded that he hand over his wallet. Another man said this was not good enough and forced him into a nearby flat.
The man was detained there against his will where the gang forced him to hand over his phone, bank cards and pin numbers by beating him and hitting him over the head with a bottle.
They left the flat but Ward stayed behind where she held a syringe to the victim and said the blood in the syringe was contaminated with the Aids virus.
Finnan to give evidence at inquest
Republic of Ireland and Liverpool footballer Steve Finnan will give evidence at an inquest next month into the death of a pensioner who was involved in a collision with his car.
Henry Nelson (81) from Liverpool suffered serious injuries after he was struck by Finnan's black Range Rover in January. He died five weeks later in hospital.
Finnan was arrested three months later on suspicion of dangerous driving but was never charged. He will be called as a witness at the inquest into Mr Nelson's death at Liverpool Coroner's Court on November 24th.
Finnan, who comes from Limerick, started his career at non-league Welling before moving into league football with Birmingham and Notts County. In 1998 he was bought by Fulham for £600,000 before moving to Liverpool for an estimated £3.5 million ahead of the 2003/04 season.