A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
TV licence fine for former SF candidate
A 69-year-old Killarney man who has refused to pay his television licence fee for almost a quarter of a century, after being excluded from a political programme, yesterday admitted having a colour television when an An Post inspector called to his home two years ago, but has not paid the licence fees.
The loss to the State was €287, the An Post inspector told Killarney District Court yesterday.
Representing himself, Richard Behal, Arbutus Grove, Killarney, contested the charge of not having a colour television licence on December 13th, 2005, saying his human rights had been violated when he was excluded from an RTÉ broadcast as a Sinn Féin candidate in 1984.
Because of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act then in force, RTÉ did not include a live interview with him on an election programme, although it included the other eight candidates.
However, the judge rejected his argument and fined him €300 and €90 costs, with six months to pay.
Mr Behal has been prosecuted a number of times on the issue and was jailed on one occasion for refusing to pay the fines.
As he left the stand he indicated to reporters that he would not be paying the current fine.
Man says stabbing was in self-defence
A 21-year-old man admitted to gardaí that he had stabbed his 22-year-old friend, but he insisted that it was in self-defence, a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork heard yesterday, writes Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent.
Keith Nagle told gardaí that he armed himself with a kitchen knife when Gerard O'Mahony went into the bathroom of his flat, as he feared that Mr O'Mahony would attack him, and he claimed that he stabbed him as his friend lunged at him.
Mr Nagle, from Churchfield Green, Cork, denies the murder of Mr O'Mahony at Flat 5, 3 Parkview, Wellington Road, Cork, on April 21st-22nd, 2006, but has admitted his manslaughter, though this plea has not been accepted by the DPP.
Jailed for gun and drug offences
A Lithuanian carpenter who served in the Russian army has been given a five-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for possession of firearms and drugs in his home.
Orentas Jaselskis (39), Charnwood Gardens, Clonsilla, pleaded guilty to possessing a semi-automatic pistol, "Ecstasy" tablets valued at €670 and cannabis herb valued at €250 on May 5th, 2006. He had five previous convictions.
Judge Katherine Delahunt imposed sentences totalling five years, but suspended the final two years.
Man who bit two gardaí jailed
An man who bit two gardaí after a day's drinking was jailed for a year yesterday.
Fisherman Ragab Arafa, of no fixed abode and from Egypt, pleaded guilty to assaulting Garda Peter Buttle and Garda Nicholas Shanahan, causing them harm in Duncannon, Co Wexford, in June.
Sgt Michael Troy told Wexford Circuit Court that Garda Buttle and Garda Shanahan were on patrol at Duncannon at 1.30am when they saw Arafa obstructing a camper van. The biting occurred later after he was arrested in the street for drunkenness and public disorder.