More news in brief.
Belfast City Council elects SF lord mayor
Belfast City Council has elected a Sinn Féin member as lord mayor.
Lower Falls councillor Tom Hartley was elected by 25 votes to 23 for DUP candidate Diane Dodds. There was one abstention.
Mr Hartley replaces Ulster Unionist lord mayor Jim Rodgers, who has just finished his second term as the city's first citizen.
The UUP's David Browne will be the new deputy mayor.
Sinn Féin councillors combined with Alliance and SDLP members to support Mr Hartley, an arrangement that has effectively rotated the lord mayor post between nationalist and unionist candidates in alternate years.
Pubs warned on cut-price drinks
Two publicans in Dublin and Co Tipperary have been told to drop cut-price drinks promotions after they were found to have breached an industry code against alcohol misuse.
Morrissey's Bar in Thurles was censured for selling €3 pints of lager on a student night promotion.
The drinks industry group Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol, acting on a complaint from a member of the public, found the promotion breached its code of conduct.
The Purty Kitchen in Dublin's Temple Bar was also found to have breached the code over its promotion of cheap alcohol, including €2 bottles, €2 shots, and €6 for a double vodka and Red Bull.
Mortgage arrears plan for North
Northern Ireland Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie has told the Assembly of plans to help victims of the credit crunch who have fallen into mortgage arrears.
The first is a Mortgage-to-Rent scheme that enables local housing associations to buy properties on behalf of homeowners who simply cannot afford to make repayments.
The housing association would then lease back the property to the owners, thus sparing home owners from facing court orders and repossession by lenders.
Under the second scheme, a housing association would buy out the outstanding mortgage on behalf of a home owner in financial trouble and convert it as affordable rent, which the owner would then pay to the association.