A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Man consents to extradition
A convicted sex offender who is wanted in Scotland for allegedly failing to notify the authorities there of his whereabouts has consented to his extradition to Britain.
Fraser Benjamin McLaughlin (57) told the High Court in Dublin yesterday that he wished to return to Scotland “as soon as possible”.
In a European arrest warrant seeking his surrender, it is claimed he broke the conditions of the Sexual Offenders Register by failing to notify the police of his location and that he also failed to answer bail over charges linked to child abuse images.
Heaney poetry award winner announced
The winner of the inaugural Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for Poetry was announced in Queen’s University Belfast last night.
Sian Hughes won the award for The Missing and was the recipient of the £1,000 prize. The announcement was made at a special reception hosted by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland during the British and Irish Contemporary Poetry Conference.
Bethany reports 'deeply disturbing'
Reports of a lack of human kindness and compassion at Bethany Home, a residential institution run by Protestant evangelicals in Dublin’s Rathgar from 1922 to 1972, are “deeply disturbing” the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin has said.
The Most Rev John Neill said he lamented the fact that women and children suffered through the reported failures of the home operated by a charity with a Protestant ethos.
“It is a matter of grave concern and deep pain that in the first half of the last century Bethany Home should have been inadequate to its task,” he said.
Commission proposes flood relief release for 2009 of 13m
The European Commission has proposed that €13 million in funding for repairs of damage caused by flooding in 2009 be released to Irish public authorities.
A spokesman for commissioner for regional policy Johannes Hahn confirmed the funding has been approved for release from the European Union Solidarity Fund. If approved by the European Parliament and member states, it would go towards the restoration of infrastructure, provision of temporary accommodation and emergency services, and long-term flood prevention measures in affected areas.
NI police federation chief urges 'hot pursuit' Border corridor
The British and Irish governments should authorise a "hot pursuit" corridor along the Border to help tackle the dissident republican paramilitary threat, the chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Federation Terry Spence has told a conference.
Mr Spence told the annual conference of the federation that a critical point was approaching and the PSNI needed at least another 1,000 officers to combat the dissident threat.
"We are rapidly approaching a stage which can either become the point of no return or the opportunity to be seized which will end a terrorist campaign before it gets fully under way," he said at the La Mon hotel outside Belfast yesterday.
Conor Lenihan 'an evolutionist'
Minister of State for Science Conor Lenihan is "an evolutionist", the author of an anti-evolution book launched in Dublin last night said.
Mr Lenihan had been due to launch The Origin of Specious Nonsense by John May but the author asked him to withdraw in the wake of controversy about a Minister being associated with the event. "Conor Lenihan . . . is an evolutionist," Mr May said. "I was asking an evolutionist to launch my book. Big deal."
Dublin TUI rejects Croke Park talks
The prospect of industrial action by second level teachers has increased after a key branch of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) rejected talks on the Croke Park deal.
The Dublin TUI branch also wants to keep a series of directives in place, including bans on parent-teacher and planning meetings outside schools hours. This move will raise the temperature ahead of a TUI special delegate conference on Saturday week.