A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Murder trial jury spends night in hotel
The jury in the trial of a man charged with murdering his wife has been sent to a hotel for the night at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. The jury of 10 men and two women had been deliberating for two hours.
Anton Mulder (45), Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, originally from Durban, South Africa, denies murdering Colleen Mulder at the house they were renting in December 2004. She had been strangled.
The jury will continue its deliberations tomorrow.
Boy (13) questioned about shootings
A 13-year-old boy was being questioned by gardaí in Limerick last night in connection with recent shootings in the city. He was arrested in the St Mary's Park area and was being questioned along with a 19-year-old man about four shootings last weekend.
Gardaí have confirmed there were four separate shooting incidents last Friday night and in the early hours of Saturday morning.
A number of houses were targeted by the culprits but no one was injured in any of the incidents. Gardaí have carried out a number of searches in the area following the shootings.
Roadstone fined for safety breaches
Building materials company Roadstone has been fined €17,500 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for breaches of health and safety legislation over five years ago which left two electricians with burns.
Roadstone pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe working environment in July 2001 at or near its paving plant at Fortunestown, Tallaght, Dublin.
Jim Holmes, of the Health and Safety Authority, said it was Roadstone's fourth conviction for not complying with safety regulations.
Youth threw phone into Limerick jail
A Limerick teenager with 75 previous convictions was jailed for 18 months yesterday for throwing a mobile phone wrapped in a sock over the wall into Limerick Prison and for driving offences.
Edward O'Sullivan (19), Galtee Drive, O'Malley Park, pleaded guilty to a number of charges at Limerick District Court.
Embassy staff to place picket over job cuts
Union members will picket Dublin's British embassy next month, after the breakdown of talks over job cuts at the Ballsbridge mission.
Three Irish staff from the embassy's UK trade and investment section will be made redundant, it was confirmed yesterday. The three are among the embassy's most senior Irish staff, said trade union Unite.
Unite had wanted to take the matter to the Labour Relations Commission but said embassy officials were unwilling to do this.
A one-day work stoppage will be held on February 7th. An embassy spokeswoman said the stoppage would not affect business.
O2 disruptions in Dublin, Wicklow
Thousands of O2 mobile phone customers in the east experienced a disruption to services yesterday following a hardware fault in Co Dublin. O2 said a fault on a mast on Three Rock mountain had resulted in customers in south Dublin and Wicklow experiencing problems with coverage.
O2 said efforts to rectify the fault were hampered by strong winds, but that normal service had been restored by lunchtime.
It apologised for the disruption.
Court of Human Rights judge named
Dr Ann Power SC has been elected as the Irish judge on the European Court of Human Rights by the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe.
She replaces Judge John Hedigan, who resigned last February to take up a position as a High Court judge. Dr Power was selected from a panel of three forwarded by the Government. The other two were barrister David Keane and Roger Sweetman SC.
Man dies as lorry goes out of control
A father of six young children, including two sets of twins, died yesterday when his council lorry went out of control in Sligo town.
John Feely (38), Tubbertelly, Tubbercurry, is believed to have had a heart attack while driving a Sligo County Council truck along the town's Pearse Road. It was the second time in three days for the community in Tubbercurry to mourn a road victim.
Mr Feely died shortly before car crash victim Sile McCann (16) was buried yesterday afternoon.
Athy promised water in fortnight
Residents of Athy who have been without running water for the past fortnight were yesterday assured that a normal supply would be restored within two weeks.
More than 400 households in the Co Kildare town have experienced water shortages due to the closure of a pumping station supplying one-third of the town's water, following flooding on the river Barrow. Martin Miley, a councillor, said a guarantee had been made that Athy would be connected to the Poulaphouca water supply within two weeks.
Kidney group opposes donor plan
The Irish Kidney Association has said it would not support the suggestion by British prime minister Gordon Brown that everyone should be automatically placed on an organ donor register.
If this happened it would be presumed when a person died that they had given consent for their organs to be donated, unless they had opted out of the register.
Mark Murphy of the kidney association said his organisation believed informed consent should remain as the Irish position for organ donation.
Lecture tonight on print trade
NUI history professor Colm Lennon will speak on Ireland's print trade and social change up to 1800 in a lecture at the National Print Museum, Beggars Bush, Dublin, tonight. The lecture begins at 7.30pm and admission is free.