In short

Today's other stories in brief

Today's other stories in brief

Postmortem to be conducted on Mayo man

State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy is due to travel to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar today to conduct a postmortem on a body discovered in a chalet beside the Downhill Hotel, Ballina, early yesterday.

According to gardaí there were "suspicious marks" on the dead man's face.

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The deceased hasn't been named but he is believed to be an elderly man who retired recently from a position at the Downhill Hotel complex.

Irishman killed in Afghanistan

A 32-year-old man from Westport, Co Mayo, serving with the Royal Marines in Afghanistan has been killed along with a colleague in the province of Helmand.

Robert McKibben, one of a family of four, was in a British army unit taking part in a joint patrol with Afghan soldiers on Wednesday when his vehicle was struck by an explosive device.

Along with an as yet unnamed comrade he died instantly.

The son of Tony and Gráinne O'Malley McKibben, he is expected to be buried in Westport when his remains are released.

Winding up of PDs set in motion

The national executive of the Progressive Democrats, at a meeting in Dublin last night, set in train the sequence of events which will lead to the ultimate disbandment of the party, writes Deaglán de Bréadún.

PD sources said the process would "probably take a few months" and, at that stage, the Registrar of Political Parties, Clerk of the Dáil Kieran Coughlan, would be notified that the party was no longer in existence.

Eta member set for Belfast court

A leading member of the Basque separatist group Eta who served 21 years in prison in Spain for killing 25 people is to appear in court in Belfast on Monday to answer an arrest warrant issued by the high court in Madrid, writes Gerry Moriarty.

Inaki de Juana Chaos (53) has been living in Ireland since September after he was released from prison in Spain in August.

He had been sentenced to 3,000 years in prison for a series of murders during the 1980s.