A round up of today's other stories in brief.

O'Brien spends €2.5m on Aer Lingus shares

Businessman Denis O'Brien has bought another €2.5 million worth of Aer Lingus shares.

In a statement to the stock exchange yesterday, Mr O'Brien said he had bought one million Aer Lingus shares at a cost of €2.50 each, bringing his stake in the airline to 2.28 per cent.

Mr O'Brien's name first appeared on the Aer Lingus share register last October, when he spent more than €32 million acquiring a 2.1 per cent stake in the group just a few weeks after Ryanair launched its as-of-yet unsuccessful bid for the former State airline.

The purchase was seen as an attempt to help the Government and Aer Lingus employees block the takeover. This is the first time Mr O'Brien has added to his holding since then.

IN&M buys back more shares

Independent News & Media (IN&M) has bought back a further one million of its own shares at a cost of €3.65 million.

The announcement comes just three days after it spent €9.1 million buying up 2.5 million shares.

All the stock is being held in treasury, meaning that it is not available for purchase by any shareholder. Since it first bought back shares in the past four weeks, IN&M has reduced its share capital by 1.7 per cent.

Pensions reserve fund up by 22%

The National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) grew by more than 22 per cent last year to €18.9 billion.

The NPRF commission also said yesterday that the fund, which was set up to meet social welfare and pensions costs from 2025 onwards, produced an investment return of €1.45 billion in the first five months of 2007, bringing it to €20.75 billion.

"Following a volatile first quarter, the fund has performed well for the first five months of the year, with global equity markets posting strong gains in April and May as worries of a US economic slowdown receded," said Dr Michael Somers, chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, which manages the fund.

In its 2006 annual report published yesterday, the NPRF commission said the target asset allocation of the fund had been fine-tuned.

The target weighting for emerging market equities rose from 2 per cent to 5 per cent, while the allocation for large cap equities was cut.

The proportion to be invested in private equity rose from 8 to 10 per cent.

Kerry spends €40m on share buyback

Food group Kerry yesterday continued its share buyback, spending almost €40 million on 1.9 million units. The stock will be cancelled.

African Diamonds finishes drilling

African Diamonds has completed the drilling work at its AK6 kimberlite project in Orapa, Botswana, and is now assessing the value of the findings. The AIM- and Botswana-listed firm said the final valuation would take place later this year.

Man sought in NI released on bail

The High Court has released on bail a Co Louth man whose extradition is being sought in the North for his alleged failure to pay almost £10 million sterling (€14.8 million) in excise duty and VAT on fuels brought across the Border in the late 1990s.

Eamon Devlin (58), with addresses at Ardee Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, and in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, was remanded to appear before a sitting of the court later this month.

He was remanded on foot of his own surety of €40,000 and an independent surety of €20,000.