A roundup of today's other stories in brief.

AIB appoints Anne Maher to board

AIB has appointed former Pensions Board chief executive Anne Maher to its board.

Ms Maher, who retired from the Pensions Board in November, is also a board member of the Irish Accounting and Auditing Supervisory Authority and first chair of the Medical Council's performance committee. She is one of three appointments to the board. The others are Dan O'Connor, former president and chief executive of GE Consumer Finance Europe, and Donal Forde, managing director of AIB's Irish retail banking operations.

Thorntons opens car recycling unit

Thorntons Recycling has opened a new facility in Ballyfermot to recycle end-of-life vehicles (ELVs).

The company, which invested €1 million in the recycling operation, has signed a number of agreements with car manufacturers such as Ford, Opel, Volvo and Toyota.

EU legislation requiring the effective environmental management of ELVs came into effect on January 1st.

Over 19,000 new businesses in 2006

New business start-ups increased by 11 per cent to more than 19,000 last year, according to the latest business start-up barometer from Bank of Ireland.

Dublin was the most popular choice for entrepreneurs, with 7,006 locating there. It was followed by Cork, where 1,524 companies were formed.

HMV reports loss of £31.8m

Britain's HMV Group reported a first-half loss of £31.8 million (€24.7 million) yesterday as competition from the likes of Amazon and Tesco hit sales.

HMV chief executive Simon Fox was also forced to salute boyband Take That after his criticism of their album Beautiful World before Christmas proved wide of the mark. "I have to eat my words on Take That. They sold a million albums in 27 days, which is the second-fastest ever rate of sale for an album." But for the most part, trading proved tough, Mr Fox said. "The markets in which we operate continue to be very difficult." - (Reuters)

Mr Dermot Desmond

The Irish Times has been asked to clarify that the application the subject matter of an article entitled "Desmond's lawyers aim to block New York law suit" and published on February 3rd, 2006 was a minor application in the overall litigation which at no stage amounted to a claim for tens of millions of dollars and that the procedures followed by the court were standard procedures in cases of this nature and that no preferential treatment was sought by or on behalf of Dermot Desmond.

The Irish Times acknowledges that five out of the eight headings of claim had already been decided in favour of IIU and that the three remaining headings of claim remain to be determined by the New York court and were fully contested.

In a follow-up article on February 6th, 2006, entitled "Desmond accused of trying to avoid suit", a similar impression might have been given and The Irish Times accepts that Mr Desmond was not avoiding proceedings but was in fact contesting same fully on all fronts. The Irish Times regrets any confusion arising from the reports.

Vodafone appoints board chairman

Vodafone Ireland has appointed businessman Brian Patterson to chair its board, in succession to Paul Donovan. He will lead the executive team of the mobile phone operator until the appointment of a permanent chief executive to replace Teresa Elder, who leaves the company this month to return to the US.

Mr Patterson is chairman of The Irish Times Ltd, publisher of The Irish Times.