A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Catholics to challenge NI Assembly move
Three Catholic civil servants received High Court permission yesterday to challenge their removal from high-ranking posts within the Northern Ireland Assembly.
A judge granted leave for Joe Reynolds, Claire McGivern and Tom Evans to attempt to overturn a cross-party body of a decision by Stormont MLAs to end their secondments to the parliament and send them back to their original government departments.
They alleged that the Assembly commission, chaired by Democratic Unionist speaker Willie Hay, treated them worse than a Protestant colleague on the senior management board.
It was claimed the body acted in bad faith by rushing through an efficiency review within weeks of devolution being restored last May just to dismiss them from their jobs.
Their lawyer accused the Assembly commission of acting with indecent haste and pre-determining the evaluation's outcome.
Mr Reynolds, Ms McGivern and Mr Evans held three of the top secretariat staff positions: deputy clerk, director of legal services and deputy chief executive respectively.
They were returned to their respective departments late last year after a capability review assessment that the senior management board had failed to provide dynamic corporate leadership.
Their senior counsel, Brett Lockhart QC, claimed this contrasted with the send-off given to Arthur Moir, a Protestant chief executive to the Assembly, when he took retirement.
After hearing both sides, Mr Justice Gillen ruled the civil servants had an arguable case.
He said: "I have decided there's a distinction between the way two groups of different religious make-up were treated. It calls for an explanation."
Dublin Bus service cut due to attacks
Dublin Bus has been forced to withdraw its services to parts of Finglas almost nightly this week because windows have been smashed by youths throwing rocks and stones.
The attacks on the local fleet flared up in the last fortnight and in one incident a bicycle was thrown across the path of an oncoming bus.
The numbers 40, 40A and 40C buses operating around Finglas west and Finglas south have been affected from early evenings. Drivers were ordered to withdraw from the areas involved following attacks to protect passengers and the driver.
The problem escalated this week, which is a mid-term break for secondary school students.
Although a number of windows were broken, nobody has been injured.
Refrigeration firm workers to strike
Over 80 workers began strike action yesterday at a company that supplies refrigeration facilities to the retail sector.
Siptu said the row at Novum (Overseas) Ltd in Clonshaugh, Co Dublin, centred on the way workers were selected for lay-offs.
"For the last 30 years, lay-offs at the plant have been on the basis of 'last-in, first-out'. But recently, management announced, with no discussion, that they are to lay off workers on a skills basis which means some junior workers will be retained while those with long service - some of whom had trained the junior staff - will be laid off," the union said.
Sentencing later for rioting youths
Six inmates who took part in a St Stephen's Day riot at St Patrick's Institution three years ago, injuring four prison officers, have had their sentences adjourned at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
They pleaded guilty to violent disorder at the youth detention centre on December 26th, 2005.
Judge Patricia Ryan adjourned sentencing until next week to allow her consider reports handed into court.