A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Eight held over separate drug seizures
Four men remained in Garda custody last night following the seizure of 100kg of cannabis resin near Dublin airport. The drugs have a street value of about €1 million.
In a separate drugs recovery, gardaí seized cannabis with a street value of about €140,000 in disused farm buildings in south Wexford and detained four people for questioning.
In the Dublin seizure Customs officers and gardaí, acting on intelligence, followed a truck which arrived off a car ferry from Liverpool yesterday morning. The driver drove it to a rendezvous point at the back of Dublin airport at about 6.30am. Gardaí intercepted the cargo as it was being loaded into another truck and a van.
Four men have been detained.
Man dies after road collision
A 30-year-old man was killed yesterday in a collision involving his car and a truck in Co Laois.
The incident happened about three miles outside Portlaoise at Kyletalisha on the main Portlaoise to Mountmellick Road at 5.20pm.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the lorry escaped unharmed.
Gardaí at Portlaoise are investigating.
Tale of Mossad 'hit' a fabrication
Reports that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, tried to assassinate a Palestinian exile on the streets of Dublin this week have been described as a "total fabrication".
The story, which surfaced on the website of Israel's biggest circulation newspaper Yediodh Ahronoidt, has appeared on websites all over the Middle East.
According to the report which quotes unnamed "Palestinian sources", shots were fired at Jihad Jaara from a car as he made his way to the Delegation General of Palestine office on Adelaide Road on Wednesday afternoon.
A Garda spokesman said that no such incident took place.
Dr Hikamt Ajjuri, the head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Ireland, said the first they had heard about it was on Thursday morning.
"Jihad was with me the whole day on Thursday and we were laughing. It is a total fabrication and such a confusing piece of news," he said.
Warning over school transport
Thousands of children will be at risk of having no school transport in September if Bus Éireann does not renegotiate contract prices with private bus operators, it was claimed yesterday.
Fine Gael Seanad spokeswoman on education and science, Senator Fidelma Hayes, yesterday said she had been contacted by private bus operators who say they cannot run their school buses at the contract price due to increasing costs.
Private operators say the price of school bus tickets has gone up and the increase has not been passed on to them.
"1,600 private bus routes will be affected nationally if contracts are not signed for the coming school year," said Ms Hayes.
Look out for shooting stars
Sky watchers are being advised to watch out for spectacular meteor showers over the next five days.
The Perseids, so-called because they can be seen emanating from the direction of the constellation of Perseus, reach their peak on Tuesday but can be visible all weekend.
Astronomy Ireland is asking people to count the shooting stars and contribute to a study of the Perseid meteors. The showers can be seen by looking to the northeast.
The best time to see meteors is after midnight when the moon has set.