More news in brief.
Two girls injured in bus crash
Two teenage girls attending an Irish language course were taken to hospital last night with serious injuries after being hit by a bus in Spiddal, Co Galway.
The collision occurred about 6.45pm when the girls, who are believed to be attending a Gaeltacht summer school in the area, were crossing the road in Spiddal village.
The girls were taken to University College Hospital, Galway.
Their injuries are described as serious but not life threatening. The bus belonged to a private bus company.
Bomb scare at Cork airport
A bomb scare disrupted operations at Cork airport yesterday evening following the discovery of a note on a Future flight from Faro to Cork. The note is believed to have contained threats of a bomb on board the aircraft.
The emergency services were alerted and an extensive search of the plane was carried out, but nothing suspicious was uncovered.
North soldier killed in Iraq
A young British soldier who died in Iraq at the weekend was from Northern Ireland.
Lance Cpl Timothy Darren "Daz" Flowers (25) was working at a vehicle park when the attack occurred. He was hit by shrapnel and later died from his injuries, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
He joined the British army in January 2003. The MoD did not have further information about where he was from in the North.
TD calls for more cardiac devices
Life-saving defibrillators should be introduced as a compulsory feature of all sports facilities nationwide, according to Labour TD Mary Upton.
The Dublin South Central TD has called on local authorities nationwide to make it mandatory for all sports facilities including gyms to have a defibrillator on site.
"Defibrillators dramatically improve the chances of survival if somebody does suffer a heart attack and they are relatively simple to operate," she said.