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

Ireland comes 10th in help for poor countries

Ireland ranks 10th out of the 21 richest countries in the world in this year's commitment to development index (CDI).

The index uses seven categories to rank the 21 countries in terms of their commitment to helping developing nations. The categories are: trade; investment; aid; environment; migration; security; and technology.

The State's strongest contributions to the development of poor countries came through its high-quality foreign aid programme and its lack of arms exports to undemocratic governments, according to Center for Global Development, which produces the index.

Cork car company names new director

Johnson & Perrott, the Cork car company which owns the Avis car rental franchise in the Republic, has appointed Séamus Scally, the former chief executive of Cork retailer Musgrave, as a non-executive director.

Mr Scally will take over as chairman of the company from retired AIB manager Barry Murphy in January. Mr Murphy held the position for the last 10 years.

Pretax profits at the firm, which also owns two car dealerships in Cork and a car fleet business in Tallaght, fell by almost 36 per cent to €4.6 million last year. Turnover rose 6 per cent to €145.5 million.

Trichet hesitant on EU bank regulator

European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet has said he would be hesitant about introducing legislation setting up an EU-wide banking regulator.

He was responding to a question posed by Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan at the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee on Tuesday.

Mr Trichet said it was important that Europe's banks had close links with the "surveillance authorities" but said responsibility was "at national level to have intimate co-operation with the ECB" and, "if and when it doesn't work, then we are in a different universe".

He added that the ECB was not in favour of further separating the links between regulators and banks.