Man dies 43 minutes after botched execution in US

Wednesday 30 April 2014 16.06

A US murderer died of a heart attack more than 40 minutes after his execution was halted due to a botched lethal injection.

The situation led authorities in Oklahoma to postpone the execution of a second death row inmate.

Convicted murderer and rapist Clayton Lockett was administered a new, untested three-drug protocol that included a sedative, an anaesthetic and a lethal dose of potassium chloride.

It would have been the central state's first double execution in 80 years.

But Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton ordered the execution of Lockett stopped about three or four minutes after the start of the injection at 6.23pm (12.23am Irish time), citing a "vein failure".

Lockett died of a "massive heart attack" at 7.06pm (1.06am Irish time) after receiving all three drugs, spokesman Jerry Massie said.

Even though he was administered the injection, "the drugs didn't go into the system", the spokesman said.

Mr Patton then ordered a 14-day delay to the execution of Charles Warner, who was due to be executed two hours later.

Oklahoma had previously postponed the two executions in March because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. 

But the state managed to get supplies, while changing the execution protocol, and the two inmates exhausted their appeals.

Lockett was convicted in 2000 for the rape and murder of a young woman he kidnapped, beat and buried alive.

Warner was convicted for the 1997 rape and murder of an 11-month-old girl.

Warner's lawyer Madeline Cohen had argued against the new injection combination.

She said the "experimental new drug protocol, including a paralytic" would make "it impossible to know whether the executions will comport with the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual suffering".

"Despite repeated requests by counsel, the state has refused, again and again, to provide information about the source, purity, testing and efficacy of the drugs to be used.

"It's not even known whether the drugs were purchased legally."

Both Lockett and Warner had argued they had the constitutional right to know the composition and origin of any drugs used in the lethal injection.

In a judicial twist, Oklahoma's Supreme Court had first suspended the executions in order to resolve the controversy, but then two days later reversed itself, saying the men had no more right to information on drugs than they would for the electric chair.

Since European manufacturers began refusing to sell the most commonly used anaesthetic - pentobarbital - for human executions, several US states have found themselves facing shortages.

They are now seeking an alternative, which has led to an increase in court cases over the issue.

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Man dies 43 minutes after botched execution in US

Wednesday 30 April 2014 16.06

A US murderer died of a heart attack more than 40 minutes after his execution was halted due to a botched lethal injection.

The situation led authorities in Oklahoma to postpone the execution of a second death row inmate.

Convicted murderer and rapist Clayton Lockett was administered a new, untested three-drug protocol that included a sedative, an anaesthetic and a lethal dose of potassium chloride.

It would have been the central state's first double execution in 80 years.

But Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton ordered the execution of Lockett stopped about three or four minutes after the start of the injection at 6.23pm (12.23am Irish time), citing a "vein failure".

Lockett died of a "massive heart attack" at 7.06pm (1.06am Irish time) after receiving all three drugs, spokesman Jerry Massie said.

Even though he was administered the injection, "the drugs didn't go into the system", the spokesman said.

Mr Patton then ordered a 14-day delay to the execution of Charles Warner, who was due to be executed two hours later.

Oklahoma had previously postponed the two executions in March because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. 

But the state managed to get supplies, while changing the execution protocol, and the two inmates exhausted their appeals.

Lockett was convicted in 2000 for the rape and murder of a young woman he kidnapped, beat and buried alive.

Warner was convicted for the 1997 rape and murder of an 11-month-old girl.

Warner's lawyer Madeline Cohen had argued against the new injection combination.

She said the "experimental new drug protocol, including a paralytic" would make "it impossible to know whether the executions will comport with the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual suffering".

"Despite repeated requests by counsel, the state has refused, again and again, to provide information about the source, purity, testing and efficacy of the drugs to be used.

"It's not even known whether the drugs were purchased legally."

Both Lockett and Warner had argued they had the constitutional right to know the composition and origin of any drugs used in the lethal injection.

In a judicial twist, Oklahoma's Supreme Court had first suspended the executions in order to resolve the controversy, but then two days later reversed itself, saying the men had no more right to information on drugs than they would for the electric chair.

Since European manufacturers began refusing to sell the most commonly used anaesthetic - pentobarbital - for human executions, several US states have found themselves facing shortages.

They are now seeking an alternative, which has led to an increase in court cases over the issue.

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Man on trial for boy's manslaughter in 2001

Wednesday 30 April 2014 14.58

The trial has begun of a 54-year-old man accused of the manslaughter of a 12-year-old boy in a fire in Dublin almost 13 years ago.

Dermot Griffin of Ballyfermot Road in Dublin has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Stephen Hughes on 1 September 2001.

Prosecuting counsel Mary Rose Gearty told the six men and six women on the jury that at the end of August 2001, a group of children in the Brookfield area of Tallaght had begun to build a makeshift den between two buildings on Rossfield Avenue.

She said it became quite a sizeable den. The children had put down wooden pallets, they had a couple of sofas and had put a roof on it and a couple of doors.

She said on 31 August, Stephen and another boy, Daryl Hall, decided to spend the night in the den.

She said various people were coming in and out of the den during the day and night and they had used candles at some point.

However, she said after 2.30am in the morning, the only two people left were Stephen and Daryl.

She said sometime at around 5am, a fire was started in the den.

Daryl was sleeping at the back and was able to break out of the tent and get over a wall. Stephen was not able to get out and died in the fire.

She said the prosecution case was that Mr Griffin had started the fire.

She said the jury would see a short piece of closed circuit television footage, which showed a figure approaching the den.

The figure was at the front of the den and within seconds a fire started.

She said if someone deliberately commits a criminal and dangerous act and someone else dies as a result, that is manslaughter.

She said the dangerous act here was arson, setting fire to the makeshift den.

She reminded the jurors that they were dealing with an incident that happened in 2001, and they should bear that in mind when listening to the witnesses.

She also told them that at least one of the prosecution witnesses had an addiction to heroin at the time of these events and that was something they also had to bear in mind.

The court is this afternoon hearing evidence about the exact location where the fire took place.

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GRA secretary says Government sacked Callinan

Wednesday 30 April 2014 14.07

The General Secretary of the Garda Representative Association has accused the Government of sacking former garda commissioner Martin Callinan.

PJ Stone said Mr Callinan was removed from office on a political whim and described it as a disgraceful way to treat the head of a police force.

He called for the establishment of an independent police body and said neither the Minister for Justice nor the Department of Justice should have any role in the promotion of gardaí or the appointment of commissioners.

Earlier, officers at the GRA conference in Killarney, Co Kerry called for new legislation to end the requirement for interviews to be written down as evidence when they are being electronically recorded.

Officers said the current system is antiquated.

They said the system has already been changed in the UK and other countries.

The garda caution states that anything a suspect says will be written down and can be used in evidence.

This means interviews have to be written down even though they are being recorded electronically.

The GRA said it is time-consuming and interrupts the conversation of those who want to talk to gardaí and gives more time to evade for those who do not want to talk.

Officers in the Special Detective Unit want the rules to be changed to allow the electronic record to be used as evidence.

Interim Garda Commissioner Noirín O'Sullivan last night reiterated the force's determination to bring the killers of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe before the courts.

She said gardaí were receiving good cooperation from the PSNI and the US authorities.

Ms O'Sullivan said she was very confident the killers will be brought to justice.

Kenny to chair committee on justice reform

Meanwhile, the Government is to establish a Cabinet committee on justice reform to oversee proposals for an independent police authority and other changes. 

It will be chaired by the Taoiseach.

Ministers also decided today to bring forward proposals for a public consultation process in the coming weeks.

A statement said that the intention was to have the new structures in place later this year.

The government also decided that that the gardaí and the Department of Justice should take steps to retain and preserve all tapes and devise a scheme so that they could be access in accordance with law.

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Man on trial for boy's manslaughter in 2001

Wednesday 30 April 2014 14.58

The trial has begun of a 54-year-old man accused of the manslaughter of a 12-year-old boy in a fire in Dublin almost 13 years ago.

Dermot Griffin of Ballyfermot Road in Dublin has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Stephen Hughes on 1 September 2001.

Prosecuting counsel Mary Rose Gearty told the six men and six women on the jury that at the end of August 2001, a group of children in the Brookfield area of Tallaght had begun to build a makeshift den between two buildings on Rossfield Avenue.

She said it became quite a sizeable den. The children had put down wooden pallets, they had a couple of sofas and had put a roof on it and a couple of doors.

She said on 31 August, Stephen and another boy, Daryl Hall, decided to spend the night in the den.

She said various people were coming in and out of the den during the day and night and they had used candles at some point.

However, she said after 2.30am in the morning, the only two people left were Stephen and Daryl.

She said sometime at around 5am, a fire was started in the den.

Daryl was sleeping at the back and was able to break out of the tent and get over a wall. Stephen was not able to get out and died in the fire.

She said the prosecution case was that Mr Griffin had started the fire.

She said the jury would see a short piece of closed circuit television footage, which showed a figure approaching the den.

The figure was at the front of the den and within seconds a fire started.

She said if someone deliberately commits a criminal and dangerous act and someone else dies as a result, that is manslaughter.

She said the dangerous act here was arson, setting fire to the makeshift den.

She reminded the jurors that they were dealing with an incident that happened in 2001, and they should bear that in mind when listening to the witnesses.

She also told them that at least one of the prosecution witnesses had an addiction to heroin at the time of these events and that was something they also had to bear in mind.

The court is this afternoon hearing evidence about the exact location where the fire took place.

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Banking inquiry could be under way later this year

Wednesday 30 April 2014 15.52

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that he hopes that the banking inquiry will be in operation by the latter part of the year.

He said the scale of the preparatory work will be quite extensive.

Mr Kenny also said it was important to find out what happened.

He was also critical of what he described as the catastrophic consequences of light-touch regulation during the Fianna Fáil period in government.

The decision on behalf of Labour and Fine Gael was made after this morning's Cabinet meeting.

It is proposed that the banking inquiry will be carried out under new legislation and will be conducted by a new committee.

The Government has proposed that the inquiry be chaired by Labour TD Ciarán Lynch.

The Chief Whip will consult the Opposition parties on the proposed inquiry.

The Government said it hopes that a motion establishing the inquiry will be before the Oireachtas next Tuesday.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said the inquiry's terms of reference would have to be agreed between the parties.

Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Howlin said the size of the committee was still to be determined.

However, he said it would not be overly large as there would be a huge amount of preparatory work and all members would need to hear all the evidence.

Mr Howlin said it was likely to contain seven or nine people and have powers of compellability similar to those of the High Court.

The minister said he was strongly of the view that some of the people who were involved in the economic crash would be anxious to give their version of events.

He said the law of the land would ensure that there would be proper procedures preventing the inquiry becoming a political show trial.

Mr Howlin said there would be a number of reports, as the inquiry would conduct its business in modules.

He said he hoped to see proceedings get under way before the end of 2014, but that was a matter for the Oireachtas.

The judge in the Anglo Irish Bank trial yesterday ruled that a State agency led two former executives of the bank into error and illegality, and said it would be unjust to imprison the men.

Judge Martin Nolan adjourned sentencing of Anglo's former head of lending in Ireland, Patrick Whelan, and the bank's former finance director, William McAteer, to assess suitability for community service.

They were found guilty of giving illegal loans to ten developers to buy shares in the bank; a breach of Section 60 of the 1963 Companies Act.

The judge said the attitude and behaviour of the financial regulator had complicated the issue of sentencing.

Failures would not happen under new regime - Honohan

Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan said today he is sure the regulatory failures criticised by the judge would not happen under the new regime.

He said there was a need for a banking inquiry.

Mr Honohan said it was unlikely it would reveal anything new about the causes of the banking crisis, but holding a public inquiry would be a good way of communicating what happened to the public.

Mr Honohan said that would help to restore confidence in the regulatory system and public affairs in general.

He declined to comment on whether any staff of the Central Bank or regulatory authority had been disciplined in the wake of the banking crisis, or whether former regulator Patrick Neary should repay some of his retirement lump sum.  

Mr Honohan also declined to discuss the situation of Con Horan, the former director of prudential regulation who gave evidence in the trial.  

Mr Horan is currently on secondment from the Central Bank to the European Banking Authority. He is due to return to the Central Bank at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund has said the outcome of the Anglo trial re-enforces the need to proceed with the inquiry.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Donal Donovan said there was clearly widespread support, whether implicit or explicit, for the scheme to lend money to the so-called Maple Ten group of investors.

He said the public had a legitimate expectation that those involved in the financial debacle in Ireland give an account of what happened.

He said the public "would like to see people like [former financial regulator] Patrick Neary and others, the main actors in this, come and explain the mistakes they made ... possibly put their hands up".

"So let's move forward quickly with this and not have it drag on and on as has been the case for the last while," he added.

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Ten children die as air raid hits Syria school

Wednesday 30 April 2014 16.10

An air raid on a rebel-held neighbourhood of Syria's main northern city Aleppo hit a school, killing at least 18 people, ten of them children, a monitoring group said.

At least one teacher was also among the dead in the raid today on the Ansari district of the former commercial hub, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Amateur video distributed by activists in Aleppo showed rows of bodies of children, some of them bloodied, wrapped in grey body bags on the ground.

Aleppo-based citizen journalist Mohammed al-Khatieb told AFP that the children were "holding a drawing exhibition when two air strikes, ten minutes apart, struck the school."

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said most of the children killed were aged 12 or 13.

Rebel-held areas of Aleppo have come under massive assault from the air since mid-December. 

The government's use of barrel bombs, unguided munitions usually dropped from altitude to avoid ground fire, has come in for particular criticism from human rights watchdogs because of their indiscriminate toll on civilians.

The air strikes came a day after at least 100 people, most of them civilians, were killed by twin car bombs claimed by jihadists in a government-held district of Syria's third city Homs.

Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, said it carried out the attack against the city's Abbasiyah neighbourhood, which is mainly inhabited by members of the Alawite minority community of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Yesterday, mortar fire killed 14 people in Damascus, the state SANA news agency reported, blaming rebels in the outskirts of the capital.

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Ministers confident of agreement on water charges

Wednesday 30 April 2014 16.38

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin have said they are confident that Fine Gael and Labour will reach agreement on the issue of water charges.

When asked if affordability measures for those on low incomes would mean higher charges for middle income families Minister Howlin said that solving one problem sometimes creates another.

However, he said the Government is committed to keeping charges as low as possible for all and everybody would be paying more for water if Fianna Fáil were still in power.

No decision on water charges was made after detailed discussions by Cabinet at today's meeting.

A Cabinet source described resolving the issue as a "work in progress".

Negotiations will continue and a special Cabinet meeting may be held if agreement on the issue is reached.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said that the Government parties are continuing their negotiations on the issue.

He said progress is being made but there had not been sufficient progress to make a decision on it.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny earlier said he hoped the details will be finalised and published before the Local and European Elections on 23 May.

The Government is focusing on trying to make the charge as fair and affordable as possible, he said.

The Cabinet also discussed the introduction of water charges two weeks ago, but no decisions were made.

Labour was unhappy with the proposals and the media leaks about them.

The party is said to be holding out for an agreement that a standing charge will not be introduced.

Party sources also say more work has to be done on affordability measures.

Domestic water charges will apply from 1 October, with the first bills being issued in January 2015.

Two hospitalised at water protest

An anti-water charge protester and an Irish Water contract worker were hospitalised for a time following a number of incidents at a housing estate in Cork this morning.

Protesters have been preventing Irish Water contract workers from installing water meters at the Ashbrook Heights estate in Togher in the city for the past eight days.

It is understood that workers arrived at the estate at 6.30am this morning to install meters.

Residents contacted members of an anti-water charge group who also went to the estate.

Tensions rose and gardaí attended the scene.

One of the workers was brought to hospital after an incident developed.

He received what is understood to have been a minor injury to his arm, but he was not detained in hospital.

An ambulance was called for one of the protesters shortly before 11am and he was taken to Cork University Hospital.

He was released from hospital after an assessment.

The man told RTÉ News he received a muscular injury.

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GRA secretary says Government sacked Callinan

Wednesday 30 April 2014 14.07

The General Secretary of the Garda Representative Association has accused the Government of sacking former garda commissioner Martin Callinan.

PJ Stone said Mr Callinan was removed from office on a political whim and described it as a disgraceful way to treat the head of a police force.

He called for the establishment of an independent police body and said neither the Minister for Justice nor the Department of Justice should have any role in the promotion of gardaí or the appointment of commissioners.

Earlier, officers at the GRA conference in Killarney, Co Kerry called for new legislation to end the requirement for interviews to be written down as evidence when they are being electronically recorded.

Officers said the current system is antiquated.

They said the system has already been changed in the UK and other countries.

The garda caution states that anything a suspect says will be written down and can be used in evidence.

This means interviews have to be written down even though they are being recorded electronically.

The GRA said it is time-consuming and interrupts the conversation of those who want to talk to gardaí and gives more time to evade for those who do not want to talk.

Officers in the Special Detective Unit want the rules to be changed to allow the electronic record to be used as evidence.

Interim Garda Commissioner Noirín O'Sullivan last night reiterated the force's determination to bring the killers of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe before the courts.

She said gardaí were receiving good cooperation from the PSNI and the US authorities.

Ms O'Sullivan said she was very confident the killers will be brought to justice.

Kenny to chair committee on justice reform

Meanwhile, the Government is to establish a Cabinet committee on justice reform to oversee proposals for an independent police authority and other changes. 

It will be chaired by the Taoiseach.

Ministers also decided today to bring forward proposals for a public consultation process in the coming weeks.

A statement said that the intention was to have the new structures in place later this year.

The government also decided that that the gardaí and the Department of Justice should take steps to retain and preserve all tapes and devise a scheme so that they could be access in accordance with law.

22.41 | 0 komentar | Read More

Banking inquiry could be under way later this year

Wednesday 30 April 2014 15.52

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that he hopes that the banking inquiry will be in operation by the latter part of the year.

He said the scale of the preparatory work will be quite extensive.

Mr Kenny also said it was important to find out what happened.

He was also critical of what he described as the catastrophic consequences of light-touch regulation during the Fianna Fáil period in government.

The decision on behalf of Labour and Fine Gael was made after this morning's Cabinet meeting.

It is proposed that the banking inquiry will be carried out under new legislation and will be conducted by a new committee.

The Government has proposed that the inquiry be chaired by Labour TD Ciarán Lynch.

The Chief Whip will consult the Opposition parties on the proposed inquiry.

The Government said it hopes that a motion establishing the inquiry will be before the Oireachtas next Tuesday.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said the inquiry's terms of reference would have to be agreed between the parties.

Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Howlin said the size of the committee was still to be determined.

However, he said it would not be overly large as there would be a huge amount of preparatory work and all members would need to hear all the evidence.

Mr Howlin said it was likely to contain seven or nine people and have powers of compellability similar to those of the High Court.

The minister said he was strongly of the view that some of the people who were involved in the economic crash would be anxious to give their version of events.

He said the law of the land would ensure that there would be proper procedures preventing the inquiry becoming a political show trial.

Mr Howlin said there would be a number of reports, as the inquiry would conduct its business in modules.

He said he hoped to see proceedings get under way before the end of 2014, but that was a matter for the Oireachtas.

The judge in the Anglo Irish Bank trial yesterday ruled that a State agency led two former executives of the bank into error and illegality, and said it would be unjust to imprison the men.

Judge Martin Nolan adjourned sentencing of Anglo's former head of lending in Ireland, Patrick Whelan, and the bank's former finance director, William McAteer, to assess suitability for community service.

They were found guilty of giving illegal loans to ten developers to buy shares in the bank; a breach of Section 60 of the 1963 Companies Act.

The judge said the attitude and behaviour of the financial regulator had complicated the issue of sentencing.

Failures would not happen under new regime - Honohan

Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan said today he is sure the regulatory failures criticised by the judge would not happen under the new regime.

He said there was a need for a banking inquiry.

Mr Honohan said it was unlikely it would reveal anything new about the causes of the banking crisis, but holding a public inquiry would be a good way of communicating what happened to the public.

Mr Honohan said that would help to restore confidence in the regulatory system and public affairs in general.

He declined to comment on whether any staff of the Central Bank or regulatory authority had been disciplined in the wake of the banking crisis, or whether former regulator Patrick Neary should repay some of his retirement lump sum.  

Mr Honohan also declined to discuss the situation of Con Horan, the former director of prudential regulation who gave evidence in the trial.  

Mr Horan is currently on secondment from the Central Bank to the European Banking Authority. He is due to return to the Central Bank at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund has said the outcome of the Anglo trial re-enforces the need to proceed with the inquiry.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Donal Donovan said there was clearly widespread support, whether implicit or explicit, for the scheme to lend money to the so-called Maple Ten group of investors.

He said the public had a legitimate expectation that those involved in the financial debacle in Ireland give an account of what happened.

He said the public "would like to see people like [former financial regulator] Patrick Neary and others, the main actors in this, come and explain the mistakes they made ... possibly put their hands up".

"So let's move forward quickly with this and not have it drag on and on as has been the case for the last while," he added.

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Ten children die as air raid hits Syria school

Wednesday 30 April 2014 16.10

An air raid on a rebel-held neighbourhood of Syria's main northern city Aleppo hit a school, killing at least 18 people, ten of them children, a monitoring group said.

At least one teacher was also among the dead in the raid today on the Ansari district of the former commercial hub, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Amateur video distributed by activists in Aleppo showed rows of bodies of children, some of them bloodied, wrapped in grey body bags on the ground.

Aleppo-based citizen journalist Mohammed al-Khatieb told AFP that the children were "holding a drawing exhibition when two air strikes, ten minutes apart, struck the school."

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said most of the children killed were aged 12 or 13.

Rebel-held areas of Aleppo have come under massive assault from the air since mid-December. 

The government's use of barrel bombs, unguided munitions usually dropped from altitude to avoid ground fire, has come in for particular criticism from human rights watchdogs because of their indiscriminate toll on civilians.

The air strikes came a day after at least 100 people, most of them civilians, were killed by twin car bombs claimed by jihadists in a government-held district of Syria's third city Homs.

Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, said it carried out the attack against the city's Abbasiyah neighbourhood, which is mainly inhabited by members of the Alawite minority community of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Yesterday, mortar fire killed 14 people in Damascus, the state SANA news agency reported, blaming rebels in the outskirts of the capital.

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Ministers confident of agreement on water charges

Wednesday 30 April 2014 16.38

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin have said they are confident that Fine Gael and Labour will reach agreement on the issue of water charges.

When asked if affordability measures for those on low incomes would mean higher charges for middle income families Minister Howlin said that solving one problem sometimes creates another.

However, he said the Government is committed to keeping charges as low as possible for all and everybody would be paying more for water if Fianna Fáil were still in power.

No decision on water charges was made after detailed discussions by Cabinet at today's meeting.

A Cabinet source described resolving the issue as a "work in progress".

Negotiations will continue and a special Cabinet meeting may be held if agreement on the issue is reached.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said that the Government parties are continuing their negotiations on the issue.

He said progress is being made but there had not been sufficient progress to make a decision on it.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny earlier said he hoped the details will be finalised and published before the Local and European Elections on 23 May.

The Government is focusing on trying to make the charge as fair and affordable as possible, he said.

The Cabinet also discussed the introduction of water charges two weeks ago, but no decisions were made.

Labour was unhappy with the proposals and the media leaks about them.

The party is said to be holding out for an agreement that a standing charge will not be introduced.

Party sources also say more work has to be done on affordability measures.

Domestic water charges will apply from 1 October, with the first bills being issued in January 2015.

Two hospitalised at water protest

An anti-water charge protester and an Irish Water contract worker were hospitalised for a time following a number of incidents at a housing estate in Cork this morning.

Protesters have been preventing Irish Water contract workers from installing water meters at the Ashbrook Heights estate in Togher in the city for the past eight days.

It is understood that workers arrived at the estate at 6.30am this morning to install meters.

Residents contacted members of an anti-water charge group who also went to the estate.

Tensions rose and gardaí attended the scene.

One of the workers was brought to hospital after an incident developed.

He received what is understood to have been a minor injury to his arm, but he was not detained in hospital.

An ambulance was called for one of the protesters shortly before 11am and he was taken to Cork University Hospital.

He was released from hospital after an assessment.

The man told RTÉ News he received a muscular injury.

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Girl with cerebral palsy gets €1.5m settlement

Tuesday 29 April 2014 15.09

A 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy has been awarded an interim settlement of €1.5m.

Mary Malee was born at Mayo General Hospital in 1999.

It was alleged that as a result of negligence by the hospital and its agents, she suffered permanent and irreversible brain damage that has caused intellectual and physical deficiencies.

She has a form of cerebral palsy that has been slow in evolution.

Today the case was settled at the High Court.

Mary made a statement to the court, saying: "This shouldn't have happened to me and others like me.

"It would have been appreciated had the HSE/Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, said they were sorry but at least the payment of the compensation lessens the future financial worries."

The case will return to court in two years when the issue of future care, aids, appliances and equipment, assistive technology and housing adaptations will be dealt with.

The law firm dealing with the case said that by then it hopes legal changes to permit annual index linked payments will have been enacted.

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EU imposes new sanctions on Russians

Tuesday 29 April 2014 13.14

The European Union has imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 15 Russians, including a deputy prime minister and a deputy chairman of the State Duma, over Russia's actions in Ukraine.

Others on the list released today include the chief of staff of Russia's armed forces and separatist leaders.

However, the list did not include the heads of Russian energy giants such as Rosneft's Igor Sechin, who was included on a new US sanctions list yesterday.

The decision brings to 48 the number of people that the EU has put under sanctions for actions it says have undermined Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has criticised the new sanctions, saying the EU is under the thumb of the US.

It said the EU should be ashamed and that the sanctions against will not help stabilise Ukraine.

Russia annexed the Crimea region after Ukraine's pro-Russia president was ousted in February by protesters demanding closer links with Europe.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of stirring up a separatist campaign in the east, a charge the government in Moscow denies.

Russia criticised the new sanctions, saying the EU was following the US' lead and should be ashamed of itself.

"Instead of forcing the Kiev clique to sit at the table with southeastern Ukraine to negotiate the future structure of the country, our partners are doing Washington's bidding with new unfriendly gestures aimed at Russia," the Foreign Ministry said.

The EU decision coincided with an earlier White House announcement that the US was imposing sanctions on seven Russians and 17 companies linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US has been much more aggressive in the penalties it has imposed on Russia than the EU has been, which depends heavily on Russia for energy and has close trading links.

The EU has so far only put sanctions on individuals, not companies.

The European Commission is drawing up a list of tougher economic sanctions, possibly affecting trade or the energy or finance sectors, that could be imposed on Russia.

Meanwhile, there are reports that pro-Russian militants have stormed an official building in the eastern city of Lugansk.

Elsewhere, the mayor of Kharkiv, who was critically injured after being shot in the back by an unknown assailant, has been flown to Israel for treatment, local officials said.

Israeli doctors were said to have decided that Mayor Gennady Kernes could be transported after examining his wounds.

The shooting in Ukraine's second-largest city was the latest violent incident in the east of the country, where authorities have launched what they call an "anti-terrorism" operation against pro-Russian separatists.

The mayor appeared to be targeted by a sniper, although the exact circumstances and motivations behind his shooting are unclear.

A NATO official said it had seen no sign that tens of thousands of Russian troops are withdrawing from close to the Ukraine border.

This was despite a Russian statement that the troops had returned to their permanent positions.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel in a phone call that Russian forces, which started drills near the border last week, had returned to their permanent positions.

"We currently have no information that indicates a withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian border. We continue to urge Russia to abide by the Geneva agreement and to pull back all its troops along the Ukrainian border in favour of diplomacy and dialogue," the NATO official said.

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51 killed in explosions in Syria

Tuesday 29 April 2014 15.08

Car bombs and mortar attacks have killed at least 51 people in Syrian government-held areas of Damascus and the central city of Homs.

It comes a day after President Bashar al-Assad declared he would seek re-election in June.

Government forces have pushed back the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels seeking to topple President Assad from many of their strongholds around Damascus.

However, residents say the insurgents have stepped up rocket and mortar attacks against the heart of the capital in recent weeks.

Forces loyal to President Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, are also in control of most of Homs.

The attacks targeted Alawite and Shi'ite areas of the two cities.

In Homs, at least 37 people including children were killed by twin car bombs near a busy roundabout in the Alawite neighbourhood of Zahraa.

A local security source put the death toll at 42.

In central Damascus, two mortar shells struck an education complex in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim district of Shaghour, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens.

The state news agency SANA described the Badr el-Din Hussaini complex as a religious Jurisprudence college.

However, residents said there were also primary and secondary school students there.

SANA said 14 people had been killed and 86 wounded but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence in Syria, put the death toll at 17. 

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New search for two missing Dublin men

Tuesday 29 April 2014 16.31

A team from the Garda Water Unit has arrived at a property on the borders of Cavan and Meath, which is being searched as part of an investigation into the disappearance of two men.

A house, a shed and surrounding land have been sealed off while gardaí comb the area. 

The property is on the shore of Lough Sheelin, 3km from Mountnugent. 

A tow truck has also been driven on the property. 

Anthony Keegan and Eoin O'Connor have not been seen since last week. 

Some family and friends of the missing men gathered for a time this afternoon at the scene of the search in the townland of Tonagh. 

Earlier, gardaí searched a nearby area near Ross Castle. 

A car the men were using was found at Lough Owel near Mullingar last Friday morning. 

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Former Anglo executives to be spared jail

Tuesday 29 April 2014 16.34

The judge in the Anglo Irish Bank trial has ruled that a State agency led two former executives of the bank into error and illegality, and said it would be unjust to imprison the men.

Judge Martin Nolan adjourned sentencing of Anglo's former head of lending in Ireland, Patrick Whelan, and the bank's former finance director, William McAteer, to assess suitability for community service.

McAteer, 63, of Rathgar, Co Dublin, and Whelan, 52, of Malahide Co Dublin, were convicted by a jury on 17 April, following a 48-day trial.

They were found guilty of giving illegal loans to ten developers to buy shares in the bank; a breach of Section 60 of the 1963 Companies Act.

The judge said the attitude and behaviour of the Financial Regulator had complicated the issue of sentencing.

He said it would be unjust to imprison the two men when a State agency had led them into error and illegality.

He said it seemed to him the Financial Regulator was more interested in solving the problem of Seán Quinn's interest in the bank through risky investment products than in complying with the technicalities of the law.

The judge said the explicit purpose of the loans at the centre of this case was to stabilise the share price of Anglo. 

He said the bank's higher executives and probably the Financial Regulator feared that if the share price was not stabilised, it would have a disastrous effect on the financial health of the banking system in Ireland.

But he said this was a blatant affront to Section 60 of the Companies Act, no matter what the motivation was or what necessity was perceived.  

He said both men were executive directors of the bank and had an obligation to ensure the bank behaved in a lawful manner and they had signally failed to do this.  

They had a duty to stop this scheme he said.

But the judge said to deal with the men justly he had to make certain findings. 

He said he found the problem which the scheme sought to fix was caused by Seán Quinn's "investment strategy" in Anglo.  

He said David Drumm was the instigator of the scheme to lend money to the Maple Ten.

In particular, he made findings about the role of the Financial Regulator.

He said Con Horan, who was the official in the Regulator's office responsible for the banks, did his best when he gave evidence and he said his memory was reasonably good. 

He said it seemed to him the situation Anglo found itself in frightened and disturbed Mr Horan and he was anxious that Anglo should sort the situation out.

The judge said Patrick Neary the Chief Executive of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, seemed to have limited recall and seemed to have difficulty recalling vital events.    

He said both Mr Horan and Mr Neary must have known from March 2008, when an agreement with the Quinn family was first drawn up, that it was intended that Anglo was going to be lending money to buy its own shares to unwind Mr Quinn's position in the bank.

The judge said it was "incredible" that the Financial Regulator did not take advice from colleagues in other State agencies about the legality of this.    

He said it was incredible that red lights did not go off in the Regulator's office at this stage. 

He said it seemed they were more anxious to solve the problem than to comply with the technicalities of the law.

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Appeal to trace missing son of Sinn Féin TD

Tuesday 29 April 2014 16.35

An appeal has been issued to trace a 16-year-boy who has been missing from his home in Dublin since the weekend.

Lorcan Ó Snodaigh from Bluebell was last seen on Saturday 26 April.

He was wearing a light blue jumper, blue jeans and carrying a light blue backpack.

Lorcan is described as being around 1.62m (5'4") of thin build and with light brown hair.

He is the son of Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh.

Lorcan's family and gardaí say they are very concerned for him.

They have appealed to anyone who may have seen Lorcan or know of his whereabouts to contact Kilmainham Garda Station on 01 6669700, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666111 or any Garda Station.

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Publicist Max Clifford guilty of indecent assault

Monday 28 April 2014 16.12

Celebrity publicist Max Clifford has been found guilty of a string of indecent assaults on teenage girls over a period of nearly 20 years.

The 71-year-old became the first person to be convicted under the high-profile Operation Yewtree sex crime investigation at Southwark Crown Court in England today.

He was found guilty of eight indecent assaults, cleared of two and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on one other.

Clifford repeatedly denied the claims, calling his arrest and prosecution "a nightmare" and protesting his innocence.

He was arrested by detectives from Operation Yewtree in December 2012, and charged in April the following year.

Scotland Yard's inquiry into historic allegations of sexual offences was prompted after claims were made against the late DJ Jimmy Savile.

Clifford left court without commenting. He posed for pictures flanked by supporters but told reporters: "I have been told by my lawyers not to say anything at all."

Peter Watt, director of National Services at the NSPCC, said: "Max Clifford has rightly been unmasked as a ruthless and manipulative sex offender who preyed for decades on children and young women.

"Clifford was a rich and influential man who dined with the stars but the way he manipulated and groomed his victims is typical of many sex offenders. He exploited their vulnerabilities, using lies and coercion to get what he wanted.

"Throughout the court case Clifford has behaved dismissively and arrogantly towards his victims and the suffering he has caused them. He made them go through a long and painful court case and relive their traumatic experiences by not pleading guilty.

"Many of his victims innocently came to him hoping he could make their dreams come true, dazzled by his celebrity connections.

"But he saw women and young girls as sexual objects for his own gratification. Instead of helping their bids for stardom he indecently assaulted them before casting them aside.

"Intimidated by his power and wealth, many of his victims did not initially speak out. But the courage they have shown in telling police what had happened to them and giving evidence means they have finally got justice."

As he walked towards his waiting car, Clifford was asked what it felt like to be the story, and replied it was "not the first time".

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US hits Russia with fresh sanctions over Ukraine

Monday 28 April 2014 14.46

The United States has imposed sanctions on seven Russian officials and 17 firms linked to President Vladimir Putin's inner circle to punish what it said were "provocative acts" in Ukraine.

Washington is also tightening licensing requirements for certain high-tech exports to Russia that could have a military use, the White House announced in a statement.

Russia has vowed to deliver a "painful" response to the fresh sanctions.

"We will, of course, respond," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency.

"We are certain that this response will have a painful effect on Washington."

"The United States has taken further action today in response to Russia's continued illegal intervention in Ukraine and provocative acts that undermine Ukraine's democracy and threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

He said Russia had done nothing to meet the terms of a deal agreed in Geneva with Ukraine, the European Union and the US and designed to rein in pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Russia's involvement in the recent violence in eastern Ukraine is indisputable," he said.

The sanctions follow up on previously announced measures targeting other members of Mr Putin's political and inner circle and a Russian bank.

They do not, however, specifically target sectors of the Russian economy, such as energy and mining.

The White House said those measures would only be imposed by the US and its European allies if Russia actually invades Ukraine.

The companies sanctioned include Avia Group limited, the Severny Morsoy Bank, InvestCapital Bank, Transoil, Volga Resources Group, SMP Bank, Sobin Bank and Zest Leasing.

Individuals hit with visa bans and asset freezes include Oleg Belavantsev, who was named presidential envoy to Crimea by Mr Putin in March.

Sergei Chemezov, director general of Rostec, the state development manufacturing and export programme for high-tech exports, is also on the list.

The US Treasury said Mr Chemezov is a trusted aide to Mr Putin.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak is hit by sanctions, along with Evgeniy Murov, director of Russia's Federal Protective Service.

State Duma Deputy Aleksei Pushkov is among those named along with Igor Sechin, president and chairman of the Management Board for Rosneft, Russia's top petroleum company and one of the world's largest publicly-traded oil companies.

"Sechin has shown utter loyalty to Vladimir Putin - a key component to his current standing," the Treasury said.

The leaders of the G7 nations agreed on Saturday to swiftly impose further sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

The European Union is also expected to announce sanctions as early as today targeting individuals and companies.

US President Barack Obama said the new sanctions represent a calibrated effort to change Russia's behaviour in the crisis, but he conceded that he is not sure they will work.

He said Russia has a path for the peaceful resolution of the crisis, but so far it has not chosen to move in that direction.

Meanwhile, heavily armed pro-Russian gunmen have seized the town of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine.

They have set up barricades in the town, which is located between Slaviansk and Donetsk.

There are also reports that a pro-Russian mayor of the town of Kharkiv has been wounded by gunfire.

Pro-Russian rebels have already proclaimed an independent "people's republic" in Donetsk.

Armed fighters yesterday seized the headquarters of regional television and ordered it to start broadcasting a Russian state television channel.

Rebels seized eight OSCE monitors three days ago. They have been holding them at a heavily fortified base in Slaviansk.

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Anglo solicitor unaware of lending to Maple ten

Monday 28 April 2014 16.09

The solicitor advising Anglo Irish Bank in July 2008 has said he did not know the bank was lending money to ten developers to buy shares in the bank at the time he was advising Anglo.

Robert Herron said he did not give positive legal advice about the transaction at the centre of the criminal proceedings against former executives of the bank.

He said his legal advice did not cover the ten developers known as the Maple Ten as he did not know there was any lending by the bank to them.

Two former directors of the bank, Patrick Whelan and William McAteer are due to be sentenced for giving illegal loans to the Maple ten in breach of Section 60 of the Companies Act.

Mr Herron, who worked for Matheson, Ormsby and Prentice solicitors, has been called by the prosecution to give evidence at the sentencing hearing on the issue of legal advice and its role in mitigation.

Prosecuting lawyer, Paul O'Higgins said the State was saying there was significant evidence that there was no legal advice at all about whether the lending to the Maple ten was lawful and he said this was surely significant.

Defence lawyers said the two men were told by others in the bank that there was positive legal advice about the transaction and it was their state of mind that was relevant.

Mr Herron told the court that he had no knowledge that there was any lending to the Maple ten while the transaction was being executed.

He said he was made aware there would be lending to members of the Quinn family.

He said he told the bank that this could fall within the exemption in the legislation which allows a bank to lend money to buy its own shares provided it is in the ordinary course of the bank's business.

He said he could not recall the details of a call he was involved in on July 12th 2008, with investment bank Morgan Stanley and Anglo officials.

The court heard the only written document which exists relating to the legal advice is a document dated 22 July 2008, more than a week after the transaction went through.

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Man sentenced for sexual assaults on Luas

Monday 28 April 2014 16.20

A convicted child abuser has been given a four-year jail sentence for sexually assaulting two teenage girls on the Luas while en route to a Rihanna concert.

John Daly from Cabra Park in Phibsboro in Dublin had pleaded guilty to two charges of sexually assaulting the girls aged 13 and 16 in October 2011.

Two years of the four-year sentence were suspended.

The 53-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to attempted rape and indecent assault charges relating to two young girls in the 1980s and to aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault on a 62-year-old woman on dates from 1997 to 1998.

Today, Daly was sentenced for assaulting the two Limerick girls who had been driven to Dublin by one of their fathers for the concert.

He put them on the Luas at Heuston Station because of heavy traffic.

The two girls got separated on the busy tram.

John Daly approached the 16-year-old and molested her by putting his hand between her legs over her clothing.

The teenager later told gardaí she felt she had no way out because she was squashed against a bar and did not know how to deal with the situation.

The court heard today that she was shocked and frozen and because of the shock she was unable to do anything.

Daly then placed his hand on the 13-year-old's backside area for some time after she bumped into him and apologised for standing on his toe.

She said she moved out of his way at her first opportunity to do so.

Both girls gave a good description of Daly to the girl's father when they met him on the platform when they got off the Luas.

Daly became a suspect after gardaí viewed CCTV footage.

He was arrested three months later as he was about to board a Luas at the 02 following a One Direction concert.

During a garda interview he admitted he had got on the Luas heading for the Rihanna concert in order to touch young girls.

He said he wanted to apologise to the girls for what had happened.

Sentencing Daly today, Judge Mary Ellen Ring said in a victim impact statement one of the girls said she felt uncomfortable meeting strangers on public transport and is more afraid generally.

Judge Ring said to be sexually assaulted in a public place when they were unfamiliar with the area can be a damaging event.

She said this was not an opportunistic spur of the moment assault but there was an element of some planning which is a matter of concern for the court.

She sentenced Daly to four years in prison but suspended the last two years.

She said it would be in everyone's benefit that he receive treatment and ordered that he attend the Safer Lives Programme.

In February 2000 John Daly was sentenced to three years in prison with one year suspended for attempted rape and aggravated sexual assault charges.

The DPP successfully appealed the leniency of the sentence and it was increased to a six-year term.

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Gilmore has no intention of standing down

Monday 28 April 2014 16.28

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said he has no intention of stepping down as leader of the Labour Party.

Mr Gilmore said comments by MEP Phil Prendergast about his leadership are "not helpful".

He was speaking in Athenry in Co Galway this afternoon.

Mr Gilmore said engaging in "a family row" three or four weeks out from an election was not wise.

He said it did not assist other candidates contesting the Local and European Elections.

Mr Gilmore said he had a "job of work" to do and he was focused on that task.

Speaking earlier on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms Prendergast called for Mr Gilmore to step down as party leader.

The Ireland South candidate said she is reflecting the views of "members of every level of the party" when she is calling for a change of leadership.

She said: "Ministerial level acknowledges there is a lot of negativity out there, that you have to talk people around.

"When you're with somebody like Joan Burton and she is acknowledged as being someone that is really positive within the Labour Party, I just think that is a reflection of where we need to go."

Mr Gilmore said he still supported Ms Prendergast's effort to get re-elected in Ireland South.

Meanwhile, deputy leader of the Labour Party, Joan Burton, has said that there is no leadership question in her party and that Mr Gilmore has her support.

Speaking to RTÉ, Ms Burton described Ms Prendergast as a "person of substance",  but suggested that her call to Mr Gilmore to step down was born out of disappointment at her poor poll results.

Ms Burton said she herself had been surprised to hear the comments.

But she said that the way to deal with poor results was for Ms Prendergast to get out and campaign and tell people of her work as an MEP.

Earlier, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said Ms Prendergast was "wrong to call for Mr Gilmore's resignation".

Speaking in Carlow, he said he "did not know that Phil Prendergast was going to make such a statement this morning".

He said he "will be speaking with her later today" and that he intends canvassing with her.

Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte said he did not want to comment on Ms Prendergast's call, but said he supported the ongoing leadership of Mr Gilmore.

The minister said Labour had to do a lot of difficult things in Government, for which it is now bearing the brunt of responsibility.

Minister of State Kathleen Lynch has said Ms Prendergast's comments are a distraction ahead of the Local and European Elections.

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, Ms Lynch said: "There are other issues that should be dealt with during this election and Eamon Gilmore's leadership is not one of them."

She said it is unfortunate that the leadership of the Labour Party is being discussed instead of the issues that confront the country.

The leadership has not been discussed by party members in Government at "any great length", she added.

Taoiseach says Coalition will fulfil its mandate 

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he has every expectation that Labour and Fine Gael will see this Government out to its end date and fulfil the mandate given to ministers by the people.

Speaking at the launch of the Fine Gael European election manifesto, Mr Kenny commended the party for the way he said they "stuck to the plan to sort out the public finances."  

He was commenting on strains within the junior partner, insisting that going into Government had never been a question of being liked or loved but of taking the right decisions for the Irish people.

Poll suggests rise in support for Opposition

An opinion poll out today puts support for Fianna Fáil just two percentage points behind Fine Gael.

The Millward Brown poll published in the Irish Independent shows a rise in support for the main Opposition parties at the expense of the Government.

The poll was carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, well after details of divisions between Fine Gael and Labour over water charges were reported.

The poll, which is largely in line with other recent polls, puts support for Fine Gael on 25%, an 11-point drop on the party's General Election performance.

Labour is on 6%, down 13 points from the General Election.

Fianna Fáil, Independents and Sinn Féin have all benefited from the decline in support for the Government parties.

Fianna Fáil is on 23%, up six points on the General Election.

Sinn Féin has more than doubled its support - up to 21% from the 10% it achieved three years ago.

Independents and Others are on 23%.

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Teacher killed in stabbing at Leeds school

Monday 28 April 2014 16.33

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested after a female teacher was stabbed to death at a school in Britain.

The attack happened at Corpus Christi Catholic College, in Neville Road, Leeds, this morning.

Police said the teenager was arrested in connection with the incident and is in custody.

Detective Superintendent Simon Beldon, said there was no ongoing risk to pupils or staff and that the school was "continuing to operate as normal".

He said: "Our inquiries are at a very early stage but the full circumstances of this incident will obviously be the subject of a full and thorough investigation."

Police were called to the school at 11.48am, after they were contacted by the ambulance service, following a report that a member of staff had been stabbed.

The woman was taken to hospital for treatment but was subsequently pronounced dead, police said.

There are nearly 1,000 pupils in the school, aged between 11 and 16, according to the school's website.

It also has "a strong Christian and community ethos".

The website adds: "The school has a very good pastoral structure, which it is committed to keeping and teachers receive very good back-up support."

One pupil said the dead woman had been a teacher for 40 years.

The 16-year-old said they had been told initially that a teacher had gone to hospital but lessons continued.

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South Korea widens inquiry into ferry disaster

Sunday 27 April 2014 15.32

South Korean prosecutors have raided the offices of state sea traffic controllers, media reports said this morning, as part of a widening probe into a ferry disaster that left 300 dead or missing.

The move is the latest in an investigation with a broadening scope is broadening as officials try to assuage mounting public anger over the 16 April tragedy and the subsequent rescue efforts.

Earlier this morning, Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won stood down, the most high-profile resignation so far, after admitting he had not been able to prevent the accident or deal adequately with its aftermath.

Prosecutors are already holding all 15 surviving crew members who were responsible for sailing the vessel.

They face charges ranging from criminal negligence to abandoning passengers.

This morning, prosecutors raided the office of the state-run Vessel Traffic Services centre in the southern island of Jeju, Yonhap news agency and other media reported.

The VTS is the shipping equivalent of air traffic control.

Citing prosecutors working on the case, the reports added the VTS centre on the island of Jindo, the closest land to the wreck, was also being investigated.

The 6,825-tonne ferry was communicating with the two centres, primarily with Jindo, for about 30 minutes as it rapidly keeled over and sank, trapping around 300 people inside.

The bodies of 187 of the dead have been recovered, while teams of divers battling decompression sickness and powerful swells are still searching for a further 155.

Investigators have seized records of the VTS radio communication with the Sewol and surveillance video footage from both centres, Yonhap said.

A transcript of the communication between the ferry and the Jindo centre released earlier revealed panic and indecision among crew and sea traffic controllers in the crucial final moments, with neither able to make the call to evacuate passengers.

Businesses connected to ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine Company have also been raided over accusations of corruption, and travel bans are in place for eight current and former executives of the Korea Register of Shipping, the body responsible for issuing marine safety certificates.

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Martin criticises approach to peace process

Sunday 27 April 2014 15.11

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has criticised the Irish and British governments for taking what he said was a "hands-off" approach to addressing the remaining issues in the peace process in Northern Ireland

Mr Martin said they have allowed a growing dysfunction in the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive.

He said the Irish Government is particularly culpable in accepting the idea that Dublin is not an interested party in discussions about the past.

Mr Martin said it was long past time for the governments to stop talking about how great relations are between them and instead to achieve real progress.

He made his remarks at the party's annual Easter Rising commemoration at Arbour Hill in Dublin.

He also criticised Sinn Féin, saying the party had zero claim to be the party of 1916.

Mr Martin said there is no greater insult to the men and women of 1916 than to compare them to the provisional movement of recent times.

He also accused the current Government of taking a highly partisan approach to Ireland's past, saying nothing should be allowed to distract from the 1916 commemorations.

Asked about reports today that his party colleague John McGuinness turned down the offer of running in the European Elections citing ambitions for the party leadership, Mr Martin said many people in the party have ambitions.

Mr Martin said he did not want to comment too much on the Sunday Independent article, but said it was "interesting".

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Reilly seeks to boost numbers with health cover

Sunday 27 April 2014 15.23

New measures to incentivise young people to take out health insurance will be introduced from next year.

Minister for Health James Reilly has written to all the health insurers confirming legislation providing for the new measures will be introduced in the Dáil shortly.

Minister Reilly told insurers in recent days he will introduce Lifetime Community Rating and compulsory discounts for those aged between 20 and 25 from next year.

The measures are aimed at stemming the exodus of younger people from health insurance, which some fear is threatening to destabilise a market that is based on community rating.

Under community rating, younger healthier members subsidise the older, sicker members whereby all members pay the same premium for the same cover, regardless of age.

Lifetime Community Rating will mean those who wait until they are older to take out health insurance will be financially penalised with higher premiums.

The minister has yet to designate the cut-off age but says he will provide an initial grace period to allow people buy health insurance without penalty.

Last year over 47,000 people dropped their health insurance and the market has declined from a high in 2008 when 51% of the population held insurance to the current level of 45%.

The most worrying trend has been the fall-off in younger members.

The introduction of Lifetime Community Rating has been a policy option for over a decade but its introduction next year will mark a major shift.

Mr Reilly told insurers it will be in place until the full move to Universal Health Insurance.

He also intends to change the way insurers, mainly the VHI, are compensated for older members.

At present it is based on age and bed occupancy but subject to EU approval it will move to a system based on health status, irrespective of age.

This will mean insurers incurring excessive costs for any member could be compensated from the industry's Risk Equalisation fund.

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Sinn Féin TD's son stabbed in Dublin

Sunday 27 April 2014 15.29

An 18-year-old son of Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh is in a serious condition in hospital after a stabbing overnight in the Bluebell area of Dublin.

He was treated by emergency personnel after the incident at a house on the Old Naas Road at about 12.30am.

He was then taken by ambulance to St James's Hospital.

The scene has been preserved for a technical examination.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Kilmainham Garda Station on 01-6669700 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111.

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John Paul II and John XXIII declared saints

Sunday 27 April 2014 16.22

Pope Francis proclaimed his predecessors John XXIII and John Paul II saints this morning in front of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.

Cheers and applause rang out across St Peter's Square after the double canonisation.

"We declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II to be saints and we enrol them among the saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole church," Francis said in his formal proclamation in Latin.

The crowd was so large it stretched back along all of Viadella Conciliazione, the half kilometre-long, broad boulevard that starts at the Tiber River.

Even its bridges were packed with pilgrims.

The Mass, which began under a light rain, was also attended by Pope Emeritus Benedict, who last year became the first pontiff in six centuries to step down.

Benedict walked with a cane and was dressed in white vestments

His attendance gave the ceremony a somewhat surreal atmosphere created by the presence of reigning pope, a retired pope and two dead popes buried in the basilica behind the altar.

John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and called the modernising Second Vatican Council, and John Paul II, the Pole who reigned for nearly 27 years, played a leading role on the world stage.

The overwhelming majority in the crowd were Poles who had travelled from their home country and immigrant communities as far afield as Chicago and Sydney to watch their most famous native son become a saint.

Hundreds of red and white Polish flags filled the square and the streets surrounding the Vatican, which were strewn with sleeping bags, backpacks and folding chairs.

It was one of the biggest crowds since John Paul's beatification in 2011.

Families and other pilgrims had waited for more than 12 hours along the main street leading to the Vatican before police opened up the square at 5.30am.

Some people said they had managed to sleep on their feet because the crowd was so thick.

About 850 cardinals and bishops were celebrating the mass with the pope and 700 priests were on hand to distribute communion to the huge crowd.

Francis' own huge popularity has added extra appeal to the unprecedented ceremony to raise two former leaders of the church to sainthood on the same day.

But while both were widely revered, there has also been criticism that John Paul II, who only died nine years ago, has been canonised too quickly.

Groups representing victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests also say he did not do enough to root out a scandal that emerged towards the end of his pontificate and which has hung over the church ever since.            

About 10,000 police and security personnel and special paramedic teams were deployed and large areas of Rome were closed to traffic.

Pilgrims who did not want to battle the crowd spent the night praying in Rome churches left open especially for the event and would watch the event on large television screens around the city.

The election of the Argentinian-born Pope Francis has injected fresh enthusiasm into a church beset by sexual and financial scandals during the papacy of his predecessor Benedict XVI, who last year became the first pope to resign in 600 years.

Read a blog by Joe Little, RTÉ's Religious & Social Affairs Correspondent, who is in the Vatican for the double canonisation.

Galway Racecourse marks canonisations

Around 3,000 people gathered at Galway Racecourse this morning for a special event to celebrate the canonisations.

There was a strong turnout from members of the Polish community in the west of Ireland as well as many of those who saw John Paul II in Ballybrit during his 1979 visit to Ireland.

Proceedings began at 11am, when highlights of that visit were shown on a big screen.

Those in attendance then watched edited highlights of this morning's canonisation ceremony in Rome.

A Mass of thanksgiving was then celebrated at the racecourse.

The Bishop of Galway, Martin Drennan, was joined by several other western bishops as well as many priests from the diocese.

Over 2,000 people  attended a special mass of thanksgiving in Knock to mark the dual canonisation.

The Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Charles Brown, was the chief celebrant at the Basilica at the Co Mayo Shrine this afternoon.

He was joined by local clergy who concelebrated the mass. 

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Separatists seize control of TV HQ in east Ukraine

Sunday 27 April 2014 16.36

Pro-Russian separatists have seized control of the offices of regional state television in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, a Reuters reporter outside the building said.

The reporter said four separatists in masks, with truncheons and shields, were standing at the entrance to the building controlling access, while more separatists in camouflage fatigues could be seen inside.

Meanwhile, the leader of the international observers detained by pro-Russian separatists in the east Ukrainian city of Slaviansk said this afternoon that all the group were in good health.

However, he added that they were anxious to be allowed to go home soon.

Appearing in public for the first time since they were held three days ago, seven officers from the observer team and their translator were brought into a room of waiting journalists in the separatist-held city administration building.

Guards in camouflage fatigues and balaclavas, carrying Kalashnikov rifles, were also in the room as journalists spoke to the observers.

They were in Ukraine under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Colonel Axel Schneider, who was leading the observer mission, said the group came to Slaviansk without weapons and were there strictly in line with their mandate under OSCE rules, to carry out military verification work.

"We were accommodated in a cellar. We had to set up conditions for ourselves," said Col Schneider, describing what happened after they were seized.

"Since yesterday we've been in a more comfortable room with heating. We have daylight, and an air conditioner."

Col Schneider, who had a shaven head, a closely-cropped beard and was wearing a plaid button-down shirt, told reporters he had "not been touched," and that there had been no physical mistreatment of the group.

The group sat side by side at a long table in front of the reporters, looking sombre and serious, but otherwise well.

"All the European officers are in good health and no one is sick," Col Schneider said.

He said the separatist de factor mayor of Slaviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, had guaranteed the group's safety.

He said he believed the mayor's promise. Mr Ponomaryov appeared with the detained men at the news conference.

"We have no indication when we will be sent home to our countries," Col Schneider said.

"We wish from the bottom of our hearts to go back to our nations as soon and as quickly as possible."

Earlier today, US President Barack Obama said new international sanctions set to come into force against Russia would send a message that it must stop its "provocation" in eastern Ukraine.

"It is important for us to take further steps sending a message to Russia that these kinds of destabilising activities taking place in Ukraine has to stop," Mr Obama said at a press conference in Malaysia.

He was speaking a day after G7 nations said that they would impose new sanctions on Russia within days, accusing the government in Moscow of doing nothing to honour an agreement forged in Geneva aimed at easing tensions in Ukraine.

"So long as Russia continues down a path of provocation rather than trying to resolve this issue peacefully and de-escalate it, there are going to be consequences and those consequences will continue to grow," Mr Obama said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk claimed Russia had violated his country's airspace seven times overnight Friday with an aim "to provoke" Ukraine into starting a war.

US Secretary of State John Kerry told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Washington was concerned about "provocative" troop movements along Russia's border with Ukraine and its support for the separatists, which he said "are undermining stability, security and unity in Ukraine".

Mr Yatsenyuk cut short a visit to the Vatican as concern grew that the tens of thousands of Russian troops conducting military drills on the border could soon be ordered to invade.

But Russia denied any transgression by its warplanes, with Mr Lavrov calling for "urgent measures" to calm the crisis, which has plunged East-West relations to their lowest point since the Cold War.

A Western diplomat warned: "We no longer exclude a Russian military intervention in Ukraine in the coming days."

The diplomatic source noted that Russia's UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, "has been recalled urgently to Moscow" for consultations.

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Irish actor used in UKIP immigration poster

Friday 25 April 2014 15.40

The United Kingdom Independence Party has rejected as "nonsense" criticism of the party using an Irish actor in a poster about the impact of immigration on British jobs.

The poster was published last week as the party launched its campaign ahead of elections on 22 May.

It features a builder in hi-viz vest and a hard hat begging on the street next to the slogans "EU policy at work" and "British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour".

But it has emerged the man featured on the poster is Irish actor Dave O'Rourke, prompting Conservative MP Bob Neill to criticise the party.

He said: "I think it is pretty hypocritical of UKIP. They always like to say 'we are not part of the political establishment', they like to claim they are the party of ordinary people.

"They are using a trick most other parties stopped using long ago, because they get found out doing it.

"As far as I am aware, we always use genuine people in our adverts."

UKIP director of communications Patrick O'Flynn insisted in a statement the use of actors was "totally standard practice" in political campaigns.

He pointed to the Tories' use of actors when William Hague ran the party.

He said: "The vast majority of people used in political poster campaigns are actors. It is totally standard practice.

"It is nonsense for the Conservative Party to try and depict this as anything out of the ordinary. For example, the people depicted in the Conservatives' "You paid the taxes..." campaign under William Hague were actors.

"So, Bob Neill needs to go and berate the Foreign Secretary if he really thinks there is anything wrong with this. Of course he won't because this is pure Tory party humbug.

"I would suggest that the only substantive difference between our poster campaign and Mr Hague's is that ours is proving popular and successful while his was followed by a landslide defeat."

The latest row over UKIP's European election campaign emerged after leader Nigel Farage admitted problems with the party's vetting procedures.

UKIP was yesterday forced to suspend a council candidate featured in its latest election broadcast for expressing "repellent" racist and anti-Islamic views on social media.

Mr Farage acknowledged "something went wrong" and said an internal investigation had been launched to find out how the party failed to spot the offensive Twitter messages posted by Andre Lampitt.

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Divers search lake for missing Dublin men

Friday 25 April 2014 16.12

Garda divers are searching a lake in Westmeath as part of an operation to locate two missing Dublin men.

Eoin O'Connor and Anthony Keegan, both from Coolock, disappeared after travelling to Cavan on Tuesday night.

They had been travelling in a silver Ford Focus that was found this morning at Lough Owel, just off the N4 near Mullingar in Westmeath.

It has been taken away for forensic examination.

The Garda Water Unit and Garda Armed Response Unit are at the scene.

Gardaí are also searching the area around the lake, which is a popular visitor site and stop-off area.

A group of up to 30 people gathered at Lough Owel earlier today. The group are believed to be known to the missing men.

They spent some time at the scene where the Ford Focus was found before leaving the area.

Farmers in Co Cavan have been asked to check their land and outhouses.

Gardaí suspect the men's disappearance is connected to the activities of an organised criminal gang, some of whom were trying to collect a drugs debt.

Detectives have spoken to some of the gang members as part of their investigation.

They believe up to six men were involved, four of whom were stopped by officers on traffic duty in Cavan.

Mr O'Connor, 32, and Mr Keegan, 33, were reported missing at Mountjoy and Santry garda stations in Dublin by their families.

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BOI shareholders voice anger at AGM

Friday 25 April 2014 14.55

Bank of Ireland Chief Executive Richie Boucher has been attacked for his treatment of politicians and the bank's refusal to write off mortgage debt at the company's Annual General Meeting.

However, some shareholders praised Mr Boucher's stewardship of the bank.

One shareholder castigated Mr Boucher for treating politicians like "idiots".

Others were critical of the amount of money paid to executives, while shareholders received no dividends.

Shareholder William Malone described Mr Boucher's salary as a "disgraceful" amount of money.

However, the bank's management defended its policy on pay and said that the CEO's package last year was unchanged on the previous year.

There were mixed views on the arrears crisis.

Some raised concern about mortgage holders deliberately withholding payments.

Another said he did not want the bank to become profitable on the back of shattered lives.

Shareholder Dermot Carroll said the bank is the most "cruel and relentless" for going after defaulting borrowers.

He also told Mr Boucher "to stop treating public representatives like idiots".

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Gilmore denies rift with FG over water issue

Friday 25 April 2014 15.23

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said the Labour Party never discussed the prospect of pulling out of Government over differences with Fine Gael over water charges.

He said as with all issues they resolved them in Government and this was a situation where there was still work to be done.

Mr Gilmore said there were still issues with how to deal with the number of households that will not be metered by the end of the year, and how water charging can apply in those circumstances.

He said there were also issues with dealing with the ability to pay and acknowledged that for many households an additional bill is going to be very difficult.

Asked if he would get a resolution on those matters by the end of next week, Mr Gilmore said he was anxious to do it as quickly as possible, but said it was important that the Government gets it right.

Domestic water charges will apply from 1 October 2014, with the first bills being issued in January 2015.

Meanwhile, Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte has said he believes agreement will be reached on the issue of water charges before the Local Elections.

Speaking in Loughrea in Galway this afternoon, Mr Rabbitte said the Labour Party wanted clarity about the way in which Irish Water would operate.

He said it was a complex topic that needed to be fully thrashed out.

The minister said issues such as the free allowance to users, ability to pay and the rate of meter installation had to be resolved.

He said there were regular robust exchanges between the Government parties, but said he believed the matter would be dealt with before the elections.

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Malaysia Airlines says staff 'held' by families

Friday 25 April 2014 16.13

Ten Malaysia Airlines staff were held against their will for hours by Chinese relatives of flight MH370 passengers at a Beijing hotel, the airline said today.  

The hotel has seen increasingly tense confrontations over the missing plane.

The airline employees were "barred from leaving" a ballroom for more than ten hours yesterday.

Another staff member was kicked in the leg in a confrontation two days earlier, the airline said.

Tempers have repeatedly flared at the Lido Hotel, where Chinese relatives have been put up by the airline since the plane vanished.

They have been lashing out in briefings as Malaysian officials and the flag carrier have been unable to explain the plane's disappearance.

"Malaysia Airlines confirms that its staff were held at the Lido Hotel ballroom in Beijing by the family members of MH370 as the families expressed dissatisfaction in obtaining details of the missing aircraft," it said in a statement released in Kuala Lumpur.

The more than 200 family members were incensed when a Malaysian government official did not come to brief them yesterday.

The meeting descended into chaos as relatives angrily confronted airline staff.

An airline spokesman told AFP "the main MAS officials were barred from leaving the ballroom" as about 60 family members left for the Malaysian Embassy to demand information from government officials.

"The group finally released the staff today," the airline's statement said.

Ferry victims' relatives stage protest

Dozens of relatives of passengers aboard the missing flight held an overnight protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing demanding information from officials.

About two-thirds of the 239 passengers aboard the missing plane came from China.

Many of their relatives have waited with frustration at a hotel in Beijing for updates, often venting at airline or government officials who come to brief them.

"I spent the whole night outside the embassy, there are still many people waiting outside," said Wen Wancheng, whose son was on the flight.

He estimated that several dozen took part in the protest.

Steven Wang, another relative, said about 100 people had waited outside the premises overnight.

"We want somebody from the embassy to come out and tell us why they didn't come," he said.

Police fanned out around the embassy this morning, barring reporters from nearing the building.

Chinese relatives have for weeks complained bitterly about what they call Malaysia's secretive and incompetent handling of the search.

Nothing has been seen of the plane or its 239 passengers and crew since it vanished off radar screens during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March.

A multi-national search is continuing in a remote area of the Indian Ocean off Western Australia, where the plane is now believed to have crashed after veering dramatically off course.

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Ukraine says Russia wants to start World War III

Friday 25 April 2014 16.27

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has said Russia wanted to start a third World War by occupying Ukraine "militarily and politically".

He also warned of a conflict that could spread to the rest of Europe.

"Attempts at military conflict in Ukraine will lead to a military conflict in Europe," Mr Yatsenyuk told the interim cabinet in remarks broadcast live.

"The world has not yet forgotten World War II, but Russia already wants to start World War III."

An aide to interim president Oleksander Turchynov said any incursion by Russian forces across the border will be regarded as an invasion and the attackers will be killed.

"We will consider any crossing of the Ukrainian border by Russian troops into the territory of Donetsk or any other region as a military invasion and we will destroy the attackers," Mr Turchynov's chief-of-staff Serhiy Pashynsky was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"We do not accept false declarations about humanitarian action," he said.

A Ukrainian military helicopter exploded at a base near the eastern town of Kramatorsk after being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, officials in Kiev said.

The Mi-8 helicopter was struck as it was on the tarmac of the base's landing zone. Its pilot managed to escape but was wounded, they said.

The nearby town of Kramatorsk is one of several under the control of pro-Kremlin gunmen.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian special forces have begun the second phase of their operation in the east of the country by mounting a full blockade of Slaviansk, an official on the presidential staff said.

"The operation will continue. Its goal is to blockade the terrorists in Slaviansk and not allow casualties among civilians," the official said.

Leaders discuss further sanctions

World leaders have discussed imposing further sanctions on Russia in response to its latest actions.

The White House said this afternoon that the US is prepared to impose targeted sanctions.

It said the US, French, German and Italian leaders had agreed to work together to "coordinate additional steps to impose costs on Russia".

The leaders agreed that Russia had escalated tension in eastern Ukraine, but said "Russia could still choose a peaceful resolution to the crisis".

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin that she is gravely concerned about eastern Ukraine.

In a phone call to Mr Putin, the chancellor said she expected Russia to honour the agreement reached in Geneva and urged pro-Russian militia to disarm.

Ms Merkel told Mr Putin that Ukraine has taken many steps to implement the accord, but she has seen few steps from Russia.

She said they must contemplate further sanctions against Russia due to a lack of progress.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said Russia's refusal to support the Geneva agreement means an extension of the current targeted sanctions would need to be implemented.

Kerry warning for Russia

In a sign of growing US concern about Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry last night issued what amounted to a warning to Russia not to invade.

Russia has about 40,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, some of which staged military exercises yesterday.

Mr Kerry said: "Following today's threatening movement of Russian troops right up to Ukraine's border, let me be clear.

"If Russia continues in this direction, it will not just be a grave mistake, it will be an expensive mistake."

The US accuses Russia of backing separatists in eastern Ukraine as part of a deliberate attempt to destabilise the region, undermine elections planned for next month, and gain greater influence.

Russia seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine last month after President Putin overturned decades of post-Cold War diplomacy by announcing the right to use military force in neighbouring countries.

Under the accord struck by Russia, Ukraine, the US and EU in Geneva last week, illegal armed groups are supposed to disarm and go home, including rebels occupying about a dozen buildings in the largely Russian-speaking east.

The rebels have shown no sign of retreating.

ICC to open initial probe on Ukraine

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has opened a initial inquiry into crimes committed before and during the fall of Ukraine's ousted president Viktor Yanukovych.

"The prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, has decided to open a preliminary investigation into the situation in the Ukraine to establish whether ... the criteria for opening a (full) investigation are met," The Hague-based court said in a statement.

"The prosecutor shall consider issues of jurisdiction, admissibility and the interests of justice," before deciding on a full investigation, the ICC added, saying the initial investigation was opened "as a matter of policy".

"If there was a reasonable basis for an investigation, it is then up to her (Bensouda) to ask the court's judges for authorisation," said ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah. 

Ukraine earlier this month accepted ICC jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes committed between 21 November, when pro-EU demonstrations erupted in Kiev, and 22 February, when Mr Yanukovych was ousted.

Ukraine has not signed up to the ICC's founding Rome Statute, but can ask for an inquiry to be opened.

Its parliament called in February for the ICC to prosecute Mr Yanukovych for the "mass murder" of protesters in Kiev calling on him to stand down, a crisis that has sparked the current Ukraine-Russia standoff.
 

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Judge grants more time in O'Gorman murder case

Thursday 24 April 2014 15.23

A judge has refused to strike out the case of an Italian man accused of the murder of well-known religious affairs writer Tom O'Gorman and has granted the DPP more time to complete the book of evidence.

Saverio Bellante, 34, who had been Mr O'Gorman's lodger, been due to appear at Cloverhill District Court but remains an in-patient at the Central Mental Hospital.

A prosecution solicitor told Judge Blake that the DPP has not yet received the investigation file from gardaí.

It was "an extremely complex investigation file" and likely to be received by the DPP's office next week, the State's solicitor said.

Det Garda Patrick Traynor told the judge that said there were "165 investigative tasks inquiries" and medical reports were awaited.

He confirmed that he believed the file will be in the DPP's office within the next week.

He also told the judge that "a lot of inquiries are being carried out".

Defence Anarine McAllister said the book of evidence was "long overdue" and that in spite of correspondence from the defence to the DPP's office there had been no response.

She asked the judge to consider striking out the case or have it marked peremptory against the State for the next date.

However, Judge Victor Blake refused and further remanded Mr Bellante in custody in his absence until 8 May next for directions from the DPP to be obtained.

Mr Bellante had originally been remanded in custody on 13 January last with an order that he was to be given medical treatment.

He had been unable to attend five subsequent hearings because he was in the CMH.

The body of 39-year-old Tom O'Gorman, an Iona Institute researcher, from Beech Park Avenue, in the north Dublin suburb of Castleknock, was found after gardaí were called to his home at about 1.50am on  12 January.

Mr O'Gorman, who was a well known anti-abortion campaigner, was pronounced dead at the scene and a post mortem was later carried out.

His lodger Saverio Bellante, a customer service agent, was later arrested; he had replied "I am guilty" after he was charged, GdaTraynor had said at the accused's first hearing at Blanchardstown District Court on 13 January.

The 34-year-old, who is from Palermo in Sicily, is accused of murdering Mr O'Gorman, at Beech Park Avenue, Castleknock between 11-12 January last.

On 26 March, an inquest into Mr O'Gorman's death was opened but it has been adjourned by Coroner Dr Brian Farrell pending the outcome of criminal proceedings.

The Dublin Coroner's Court had then heard that the deceased was identified through DNA matches with samples from his brother and sister.

State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy has told the inquest that the preliminary cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and a stab wound to the neck and chest.

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