A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Extradited man pleads not guilty
A Co Wicklow man who was extradited from England has pleaded not guilty at the Special Criminal Court to explosives and ammunition charges.
Colin Conlon (38), Burgage industrial estate, Blessington, Co Wicklow, was arrested on a European arrest warrant and extradited from London last month. He did not turn up for his trial in July last year.
He pleaded not guilty yesterday to the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device and 104 rounds of ammunition at Cloghran, Co Dublin, on November 25th, 2005.
He was remanded in custody until October when a trial date will be fixed.
Teenager not guilty of rape
A Laois teenager has been found not guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of orally raping a then 12-year-old primary schoolgirl in a field last year.
The jury took just under 2½ hours to acquit the now 19-year-old of committing the offences between January 1st and February 28th, 2006. It was the fifth day of the trial.
Ms Justice Maureen Clark told the teenager: "You have been found by a jury to be an innocent person. I hope you have learned something from this matter and that you continue to be an upstanding citizen."
Earlier, the teenager said in evidence that he thought the girl was over 15 years of age when she performed consensual oral sex on him.
He told his counsel Paddy McCarthy SC that both the girl and her friends told him she was 16.
He said she was in constant touch with him until he was arrested in March 2006 and had texted him with sexually explicit terms like she was an older girl.
Cab can sell car of criminal's partner
The High Court has granted an order to the Criminal Assets Bureau permitting the sale of a BMW car, driven by the unemployed partner of a convicted Dublin criminal, after finding some of the monies used to buy it were the proceeds of crime.
Mr Justice Kevin Feeney yesterday said he was satisfied that more than €20,000 cash which was used as part-payment for a BMW, driven by a Dublin woman, was either directly or indirectly the proceeds of crime. On that basis, he ordered that a receiver be appointed with the purpose of selling the vehicle.
Whelehan retires as barrister
Tribute has been paid to former attorney general Harry Whelehan SC on his retirement from his practice as a barrister.
Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said yesterday that the Four Courts, the Law Library and its environs would be the worse off by the absence of Mr Whelehan and he wished him peace, happiness and long life in his retirement.
After being called to the bar in 1966, Mr Whelehan practised on the midlands circuit and was admitted to the inner bar in 1980. He was attorney general from September 1991 to November 1994, a time dominated by the controversy over the extradition of paedophile priest Brendan Smith.
Mr Justice Gilligan said it had not been an easy time before Mr Whelehan's return to the bar in early 1995. He said his good nature and personality had earned him deserved popularity and his undoubted ability as a barrister merited the respect he was entitled to as a leader of the profession.
Several counsel joined the judge in their tributes to Mr Whelehan.
EU set to ease liquids rulefor passengers
Airline passengers making flight connections in the European Union may no longer have to surrender bottles of perfume or alcohol purchased at non- EU airports under rules adopted by the European Union Commission yesterday, writes Steven Carroll.
British authorities last year said they foiled an attempt to blow up aircraft using liquid explosives and the EU responded by limiting air passengers to carrying only small containers of liquids or gels in sealed plastic bags on board planes.
The new regulations will allow for exemptions to the current ban on liquids bought in airport shops in non-EU countries.
It will be conditional on there being good levels of security at airports.
Gardaí investigate drugs found at sea
Gardaí and the Revenue's Customs and Excise service were last night investigating the origin of bales of cannabis found in three loads off the coast of Galway at the weekend.
The last batch of the drug was brought ashore to Killybegs, Co Donegal, yesterday.
A trawler that was fishing about 50 miles off the coast of the Arran Islands on Friday found packages of cannabis in its nets. Two further finds were made by the ship on Saturday morning and evening.
The combined value of the three hauls is around €100,000.
Manslaughter term too lenient
The Court of Criminal Appeal has agreed with the DPP that a four-year sentence imposed on a man for the manslaughter of another man, who died after he was stabbed in the neck, was unduly lenient.
The court will hear submissions in October on what sentence should be imposed on Latvian Jurijs Princs, Cromwellsfort House, Wexford, who was jailed last year for the manslaughter of Robertas Stravinskas, a Lithuanian, at a rented flat in Cromwellsfort House, in May 2005.
He was acquitted of Mr Stravinskas' murder.
The DPP appealed the sentence on grounds of undue leniency and yesterday the appeal court, with the Chief Justice Mr Justice John Murray presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Michael Hanna and Ms Justice Mary Irvine, found the four-year term "fell well below the appropriate range of sentence for this kind of case".
Last November, the Central Criminal Court heard that two men had been drinking wine and vodka all day when Princs claimed the deceased made comments insulting his girlfriend and implying he was a homosexual.
Snow Patrol star fails to face charge
Tom Simpson of Scottish-Irish band Snow Patrol did not appear in Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday to face a charge of cocaine possession.
The case will be heard on August 28th after a request from Simpson's lawyer. Simpson and co-accused Colin Kennedy, both 35 and from Glasgow, are accused of being in possession of cocaine in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, on June 24th, 2006.
At the last hearing earlier this month, the keyboard player was told that he must appear before the court on July 31st.