A round-up to today's other stories in brief.
Church in east Belfast desecrated
A Belfast church has been seriously vandalised in what has been described as a "racially motivated" attack.
Vandals smeared excrement and racist graffiti on walls and defaced posters in St Colmcille's, a Catholic church on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast.
CCTV footage of people entering the church was provided to investigating police officers yesterday.
Bob Dylan tickets sell in 10 minutes
Tickets for Bob Dylan's Live at the Marquee concert in Cork this summer sold out in 10 minutes yesterday, making it one of the city's fastest-selling concerts.
Dylan will play the Cork Showgrounds in Ballintemple near Páirc Uí Chaoimh on June 25th. The showground venue has a capacity of 4,500.
'Strategy' for fish industry needed
A long-term strategic plan needs to be developed for the fishing industry, the manager of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation said yesterday.
Jason Whooley said 25 per cent of its members were leaving the industry because they could not make a living. Mr Whooley said it was time to develop a focused long- term strategy.
Heroin worth €200,000 seized
Heroin with a street value of almost €200,000 was seized by gardaí in Limerick yesterday, following a major operation which also led to the discovery of several rounds of ammunition.
A small amount of cocaine was also found with the heroin in a disused factory near the O'Malley Park housing estate in Southill.
Cardinal to speak at Pro-Cathedral
Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras will deliver the homily at 11am Mass in Dublin's Pro- Cathedral this morning. Celebrated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Mass will mark the Dublin diocesan/Trócaire Let's Live Lent campaign.
It focuses on the tragedy of child labour in Nicaragua.
Cardinal Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, is recognised as a champion of the poor in Latin America.
At 2pm he will launch Trócaire's Lenten appeal at the Standhouse hotel, near the Curragh racecourse.
Garda appeal for missing people
Gardaí from Maynooth Garda station are seeking assistance in trying to locate Seán Brennan (20) who has been missing since March 8th. He was last seen leaving the Glen Royal Hotel, Maynooth, that night. He is thin, 178cm (5 ft 10 in), with black hair. He was wearing a white polo top with Henleys written across the front.
Gardaí at Shankill, Co Dublin, are seeking help in tracing Susan Whittle (59) from Killiney, who went missing from her mother's house in Drimnagh at about 6.30pm on Thursday.
She was wearing a purple coat, dark scarf and woollen hat. She is slim and about 158cm (5ft 2in).
Drugs stored in chef's house
A chef in whose rented house one of Ireland's leading drug dealers had cocaine valued at €2 million faces sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court next week. Sandie Casserly (33), Balgaddy Road, Lucan, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to allowing her premises to be used for processing cocaine in May 2004.
Judge Michael White remanded her on continuing bail for sentence next week.
Det Garda Enda Mulryan of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation said an operation set up to target "one of the main drug dealers" led to surveillance on Casserly's house. He said a man had been given a blue back-pack, which had 5 kg of cocaine in it when the carrier was arrested.
Gardaí searched the premises and found 3km of cocaine in one room and 8km of uncut cocaine in another room. Drugs paraphernalia were also recovered.