A round-up of other stories in brief...
Two die in separate road crashes
Two people were killed in separate road crashes in counties Cavan and Roscommon yesterday.
A woman in her late 60s was killed when the car she was driving collided with another vehicle near Cavan town at 5.30pm. Both drivers were taken to Cavan General Hospital where the woman was pronounced dead.
Earlier a 45-year-old man was killed in a road crash in Co Roscommon. The pedestrian died when he was hit by a car at about 2.30am.
The collision took place on the R371 road at Ballyleague, Co Roscommon. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hoax device linked to drug tensions
Gardaí believe a hoax device left under a car at a Dublin flats complex is linked to recent drug-related tensions in the area, writes Conor Lally.
The device, which was found be to a crude hoax, was found yesterday morning under a car parked at the Dolphin House complex in Dolphin’s Barn.
The Army’s bomb disposal team found the device to be a tin of shaving foam in a sock with a number of wires. It was left under a car owned by a community worker who is active in the local residents’ organisations. The flats have been the scene of unrest in recent months as gardaí have clamped down on drug dealers.
'Hypocrisy' on human rights condemned
Ireland’s failure to implement human rights law at home while it signs up for and pushes such law internationally was “extraordinary hypocrisy and dishonesty”, said the executive director of Amnesty International Ireland last night.
Colm O’Gorman was speaking at the launch of 60 years 30 perspectives: Ireland and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The book features an essay on each of the articles of the declaration by well-known Irish people such as Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin, Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly and Cork hurler Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and Jack O’Connor general president of Siptu.
Belfast Wheel protester faces charges
A 38-year-old Traveller who staged a dramatic protest by climbing the 200ft Belfast Wheel beside City Hall on Monday evening is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates Court today charged with disorderly behaviour and false imprisonment.
The man, who was protesting at the lack of Traveller accommodation in Belfast, scaled the wheel at about 6.30pm on Monday and remained on the attraction for almost three hours before emergency rescue services brought him to safety.
The man threw off his trousers and sat and lay on top of the wheel dressed just in his shorts.
Roads around City Hall were closed during his protest.
Five people were trapped in the pods that are suspended from the wheel during the rescue operation.
All were unharmed.
This, it is understood, accounts for the false imprisonment charge.
Halting site eviction 'neither just nor humane'
The forced eviction of a family of 11 from a halting site by a local council “are not the actions of a just and humane society”, the director of the Irish Traveller Movement has said.
Damien Peelo was commenting after a Traveller family was evicted from a halting site at Gardiner’s Hill, Ballbriggan, in Dublin yesterday.
Fingal County Council said that the family had been occupying the site illegally after they had moved there from Roscommon some weeks ago.
Eileen Mongan and her 10 children had been given notice of their eviction on June 15th but refused to move until council members and gardaí arrived on the halting site to evict them and impound their caravan yesterday morning.
A Traveller family was also evicted from St Anthony’s halting site in Drogheda, Co Louth, yesterday afternoon, in order to close the site down for renovation.
Local council representatives have agreed to meet with the Traveller family tomorrow to assess their future living arrangements.