A roundup of today's other news stories in brief
Doctor struck off over poor eyesight
The decision of the Irish Medical Council to strike a foreign doctor with poor eyesight off its register was not made because of any complaint against him in the Republic, it was confirmed yesterday, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent.
Notices were published earlier this month that the council had successfully applied to the High Court to have Dr Prem Chhetri erased from the register.
The council is understood to have acted after being informed by the General Medical Council (GMC) in Britain that it had struck the doctor, a locum in obstetrics and gynaecology, off its register following a number of complaints.
He had inserted packing in a woman's rectum instead of her vagina to stop bleeding after a hysterectomy. After performing a Caesarean section on another patient, her wound was found to be gaping and bleeding while he damaged the bladder of another woman while performing a Caesarean section.
Customs thwarts cigarette smugglers
Customs officials have thwarted a major cigarette smuggling operation for the second time in as many days.
A Northern Ireland gang was behind a consignment of almost 168,000 cigarettes and 2.2 kg of loose tobacco intercepted by officers tracking the contraband on a flight from Tenerife into Dublin on Saturday night. Officials uncovered a cigarettes and tobacco haul worth more than €66,000 packed into 16 bags carried on the Tenerife flight. The gang fled the airport, having abandoned their contraband, once they became aware of the presence of the Customs officials. On Friday, officials seized almost €40,000 worth of tobacco from passengers on a flight from Riga in Latvia.
Mitchell seeks tightening-up of gun laws
Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell has again criticised the "laxity of gun laws" in some EU states, which he claims is facilitating firearms training for Irish criminals.
Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday, Mr Mitchell called for the Council of Ministers to adopt his amendment to the 1991 EU firearms directive, which would oblige firing range owners and operators to keep a register of customers and make it available to police on demand.
McGimpsey meets cancer campaigners
Northern Minister for Health Michael McGimpsey met a delegation of cancer sufferers from Co Donegal in Stormont yesterday.
Mr McGimpsey told the delegation that a process had begun to increase capacity for cancer treatment in Northern Ireland. Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry, just across the Border from Donegal, was emerging as the most likely location. Donegal patients have protested for several years against round trips of up to 600km to Dublin for radiation treatment and have been seeking a cross-Border facility.