More news in brief.
Police refuse to link killing to missing man
Moroccan police were last night refusing to link the disappearance of an Irishman almost two months ago with reports that a foreign businessman had been found murdered in Tangier.
The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed it was aware of reports that an Irishman had vanished in the north African city in early May.
"The department is aware that an Irish national was reported missing at that time and we have been in touch with his family," a spokesperson said.
Locals in Tangier say the missing man was based in the city where he was the director of a textile company.
Unofficial sources report that 11 people have been arrested in and around Tangier over the past two days.
Defence Forces chief assumes role
The new chief of staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen Dermot Earley, formally assumed his new role yesterday.
He succeeds Lieut Gen Jim Sreenan, whose retirement was marked with a special "standing down" parade at McKee barracks in Dublin earlier this week.
Man killed in Dublin crash
Gardaí have said a 19-year-old man who was killed in south Dublin yesterday morning died as a result of a road crash.
It was initially reported that the man had died following a hit-and-run, but gardaí said yesterday they had established the circumstances of the death and were "not looking for any other vehicles".
The man was struck on the Dundrum Road at around 5.20am. He was taken to St Vincent's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Derry priest in suicide appeal
A Derry priest yesterday appealed to young people to stop taking their own lives.
Fr David O'Kane, CC of St Eugene's Cathedral, made the appeal during requiem Mass for Louise Lambert-Meenan, a 21-year-old university student who took her own life last Sunday.
She was the fourth young person to die by suicide in Derry in the last four weeks. Earlier this month her friend Mark McLaughlin, (20), took his own life.
Friel play in Flight of Earls line-up
A Brian Friel play will be staged at historic sites around the country as part of a programme commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Flight of the Earls. The programme was launched at Drumcondra Castle by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday.
The play, Making History, will be staged across the country by the Ouroboros theatre group between July and September at historical sites such as Clonmacnoise, the Rock of Cashel and the Hill of Tara.
The Flight of the Earls commemorative programme also features festivals, seminars, exhibitions and clan gatherings.
State environment record berated
The Government's performance on environmental protection has been exposed as "humiliating" and "shocking" by its neglect of environmental crises across the State, Cork-based MEP Kathy Sinnott claimed yesterday.
Ms Sinnott is part of an EU delegation in Ireland to investigate allegations of breaches of EU environmental legislation.
The EU Petitions Committee will today visit a Kilkenny farm which has been the subject of unexplained animal sickness. Earlier this week it visited the proposed site of the Poolbeg incinerator in Dublin, and the Hill of Tara in Meath, earlier this week.
The committee has also met with Galway residents in relation to the county's water pollution.