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

Camera chain to close stores

British camera chain Jessops is to close three of its stores in Ireland as part of a cost-cutting drive which will see the axing of 550 jobs and the closure of 81 branches in its entire network.

Its only store in the Republic, on Grafton Street, Dublin, is to cease trading, while two of its six shops in Northern Ireland, in Bangor and Arthur Square in Belfast, will also close.

All three stores will cease operations by September of this year, according to a spokesman.

Factory prices fall again

Factory gate prices fell for the fourth month in a row, down 0.2 per cent for May, and 0.9 per cent lower than a year before, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The CSO's wholesale price index showed that the most significant changes for May were decreases in pharmaceuticals and other chemical products, which were down 1.4 per cent, and office machinery and computers, which fell 1.3 per cent, while there were increases in electrical machinery and apparatus not elsewhere classified.

Pigsback starts in Canada

Pigsback.com, the Dublin-based brand aggregator website that offers customers rewards for membership and purchases, is to launch a branch of its site in Canada this autumn.

The Canadian site will be a franchise operation run by exclusive partner BNV (Bell New Ventures Inc), a major telecommunications, internet and media presence in Canada.

Award for ethics article

Patricia Barker, an associate professor of accounting in DCU, has won the Accountancy Ireland Award, the annual prize awarded to the author of the best article in Accountancy Ireland. In an article entitled "Ethics Fatigue - Regulation versus Integrity", Prof Barker said that leaders who consistently profess and display morally positive attitudes are significantly more likely to set a tone and to influence behaviour in their organisations than any number of codes or regulations.

C&C buys back more shares

Drinks group C&C yesterday said it had bought back 600,000 of its own shares at a cost of almost €7 million. This follows the purchase of 300,000 units announced earlier in the week and is part of the company's plans to buy back up to €300 million worth of shares, or about 8 per cent of the issued share capital.

Meanwhile, Kerry Group has spent €6.2 million buying back a further 300,000 of its own shares.

AIB appoints new director

AIB has named David Pritchard, formerly non-executive deputy chairman of Lloyds TSB, as a non-executive director.

Mr Pritchard (63) retired from Lloyds TSB in 2005 and currently holds three other non-executive directorships.

Minmet losses at $7.3m

Mining group Minmet yesterday revealed a significant widening of its full-year loss, asked shareholders to consider changing the group's name to Achill Resources and said its chairman would step down.

The Dublin-based company revealed a net loss of $7.3 million.

Circle Oil to drill in Tunisia

Circle Oil said yesterday a contract had been agreed for the drilling of two wells on a Tunisian licence owned by its partner Exxoil.