A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Garda rules on discipline become law
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has signed into law new discipline regulations for the Garda which empower the Garda Commissioner to summarily dismiss a member of the force.
Mr McDowell said the regulations represented a new "swift and fair" system which would replace the current complex set of rules. He said the findings of the Morris tribunal interim reports underlined the need for the new regulations.
"The main problem identified by the tribunal was the overlay of legal formalism and procedures which could be used to delay and frustrate simple, straightforward disciplinary investigations," he said.
The rules come into effect from June 1st.
Man charged with shooting child
The PSNI in Co Fermanagh have confirmed a 72-year-old man will appear in court on Monday next charged in connection with the shooting of a five-year-old boy in his school playground in St Patrick's primary school in Mullinaskea near Enniskillen in April, 2005.
The pensioner is charged with unlawfully wounding Darragh Somers and with causing him grievous bodily harm. Darragh was shot in the back of the head and was critically ill. He spent two months in the Royal Victoria hospital before making a full recovery.
Call to ban US air force team
A former mayor of Galway has called on "any incoming government" to ban the US air force's Thunderbirds aerobatic team from this year's Salthill Air Show.
Independent councillor Catherine Connolly, an election candidate in Galway West, said yesterday the participation of the pilots, some of whom had reportedly seen active service in Iraq and Afghanistan, was "an affront to Irish neutrality".
If an incoming government did not ban the team, anti-war activists should "converge on Galway" during the air show to "express their outrage", she said in a statement.
P&G workers to seek better deal
Workers at the Procter & Gamble pharmaceutical plant in Nenagh, Co Tipperary will attempt to seek an enhanced redundancy deal at an emergency meeting of the Labour Relations Commission next week.
Last March the company, north Tipperary's largest employer, announced a decision to move its skincare operations to Lodz in Poland by the end of 2009 with the loss of 280 jobs.