A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

Setanta bids for Premier matches

Irish pay-TV broadcaster Setanta is bidding for rights to show English Premier League football matches.

The company yesterday confirmed it is bidding for two of the six packages in an auction for rights to the English Premier League. The rights, which have formerly been under the monopoly of BSkyB, have been divided into six packages of 23 games each after a European Commission ruling demanded they be split between at least two broadcasters. The value of the individual packages isn't known, though BSkyB paid more than £1 billion (€1.4 billion) for its most recent contract.

Biggest diamond find since 1990s

A small unlisted mining company has unearthed a massive 235-carat diamond in South Africa in one of the industry's biggest finds in recent years. Nare Diamonds found the Cape yellow gem, the size of a hen's egg, at its Schmidtsdrift mine, which began production only last month.

Diamonds of more than 100 carats are rare, and the gem is the largest known to have been found since the Millennium Star, 777 carats before cutting, mined by De Beers in Zaire - today the Democratic Republic of Congo - in the early 1990s.

Nare's find is a triumph for both itself and Lonrho Africa, which bought 17 per cent of the junior miner only 11 days ago. Nare plans to list on London's AIM index later this year. - (Financial Times service)

Wyeth earnings exceed forecasts

Wyeth reported better- than-expected first-quarter earnings, helped by increased sales of its drugs for arthritis, depression and ulcers, sending its shares up 2 per cent.

Wyeth, which has a major manufacturing plant in Newbridge, Co Kildare, is the sixth big US drug maker to report higher earnings this week. Wyeth said net profit rose to $1.12 billion (€900 million) , or 82 cents a share, from $1.08 billion, or 80 cents a share, a year earlier. - (Reuters)

B of I fixed-rate mortgages to rise

Bank of Ireland will increase its fixed-rate mortgage interest charges from early next week.

The bank plans to increase its rates by 0.13-0.34 per cent depending on the product.

The move means that customers on a one-year fixed rate, which is increasing by 0.13 per cent, will pay €17 extra per month on a €250,000 home loan. Those on a three-year rate, which will go up by 0.24 per cent, will pay €33 extra a-month on the same loan.

ICAI approves board structure

Members of the Institute of Charted Accountants in Ireland have approved a proposal to create an independent regulatory board.

The Chartered Accountants' Regulatory Board will have an independent chairman and a majority of its seats will go to non-chartered accountants.

It will work on policy issues including regulation and discipline of chartered accountant members and firms.

James Wilson joins Superquinn

Former Musgrave trading director James Wilson has joined Superquinn as trading director. He will have responsibility for buying, the supply chain and market at the supermarket group.

His arrival at Superquinn comes weeks after the departure of its managing director Dominic Galvin after only eight months with the business.