A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Free public transport in NI for over-60s
Free public transport for everybody aged 60 or above was launched in Northern Ireland yesterday.
More than 45,000 have applied for an over-60s SmartPass and will enjoy free travel on almost all bus and rail services. Transport Minister Conor Murphy said yesterday: "Tomorrow is International Day of Older People and so it is appropriate that, from then, free travel in the North is extended for the first time to people aged 60 to 64."
Extending the scheme will cost £4 million (€5 million) a year, but will apply only to journeys in Northern Ireland.
Late cancellation of play about Iraq
The first performance of one of the showcase productions of this year's Dublin Theatre Festival was cancelled last night after all the audience of some 800 people had taken their seats. The National Theatre of Scotland's acclaimed Black Watch- based on the experiences of soldiers in Iraq - was due to have its first preview production in the RDS, Ballsbridge last night.
However, at 8.30pm, some 15 minutes after it was due to begin, the audience were informed that the show was cancelled because a serious technical issue had arisen.
People on one row of the seating noticed a subsidence and informed staff. The festival's artistic director Loughlin Deegan said the technical team had become concerned and on that basis the show was cancelled.
Garda name man who died in crash
Gardaí last night named the motorcyclist who died in a crash on Sunday in Co Louth as Geoffrey Galligan (23) Whitewood, Kells, Co Meath.
The incident happened at 2.30am at Killany, Co Louth, when the bike left the road and struck a ditch. Mr Galligan was pronounced dead at the scene.
Garda watchdog to send file to DPP
The Garda Ombudsman Commission will send a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions on the death of a man who was found collapsed in a cell in a Garda station, an inquest heard yesterday. Mark Anthony Reidy (32), Keeper Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, was unresponsive at Terenure Garda station on December 30th, 2007, and was pronounced dead at St James's Hospital. A postmortem found he died of methadone and alcohol intoxication.
Ombudsman lauds role of newspapers
Press Ombudsman Prof John Horgan said last night newspapers were essential for the well-being of society and needed to play to their strengths in the face of competition from television, radio and online media.
Speaking at the launch in Dublin of A Memoirby former newspaper editor Tim Pat Coogan, he said the print media "should never willingly surrender the claim of being best with the news".
Man swept to sea by wave drowns
A 32-year-old man from the Philippines drowned yesterday after being swept out to sea by a wave while fishing off Culloo rock on Valentia island, Co Kerry. The incident happened at 3.45pm.
Two held after drugs find
Gardaí arrested two people following a search of a house in Foxrock, Dublin, last night. A man and woman in their twenties are being detained under Section 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act . Quantities of what are believed to be cocaine and cannabis herb and assorted paraphernalia were seized in the course of the search in the Foxrock Green area of Foxrock.
During a follow up search at a house in the Auburn Avenue area of Castleknock, 1.2 kg of what is believed to be cocaine with an estimated street value of €100,000 were seized.