Use of water cannon banned in England and Wales
Police in England and Wales will not be able to use water cannon to control serious public disorder, Home Secretary Theresa May has announced.
The Home Secretary said she had decided not to authorise forces in England and Wales to deploy the Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000.
The move could pave the way for a row after London mayor Boris Johnson approved the purchase by Scotland Yard of three of the cannons second-hand from German police last year at a cost of more than £200,000.
While water cannon have been used in Northern Ireland, they have never been used in England or Wales.
EU needs to counter rejection of democracy - Gauck
The German President has said the European Union has a duty to counter a growing rejection of democracy in areas that border it.
Joachim Gauck was speaking after he was awarded an honorary doctorate by NUI Galway this afternoon.
He said the southern and eastern borders of the EU were marked by crisis in recent times and acceptance of democracy had not been as low since 1989.
Mr Gauck added that the European Union had to confidently counter what were being proposed as "simple solutions" by those opposed to democracy.
Department representative may participate in Clerys report
A representative from the Department of Social Protection may sit on the Committee of Inspection, which is due to assess the liquidation of Clerys.
Minister of State at the Department Ged Nash said in the Dáil that he believed this should happen.
He was responding to the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Dara Calleary.
Mr Nash said while it would be rare that a department representative would sit on such a committee, he believed it should be done. He said he made the suggestion to the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton.
British unemployment rate rises
Unemployment has risen in Britain for the first time in more than two years, official figures showed today.
The number of jobless increased by 15,000 to 1.85 million in the three months to May, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
It was the first quarterly increase in the number since the three months to March 2013.
ONS statistician Nick Palmer said: "It's possible that the rate of improvement in the labour market that we have seen over the last three years may have eased off, though it is too early to be certain."
Breivik exhibit angering Norwegians
A planned exhibition about the killing of 77 people in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik is angering people who fear it will turn into a "hall of fame".
The exhibition, opening next week in the government building in central Oslo where Breivik killed his first eight victims on 22 July 2011, will include his fake police identity card and bits of the mangled van in which he planted a bomb.
Norway's Conservative-led government says the information centre, likely to last five years, has been planned in consultation with some survivors and relatives to help the Nordic nation come to terms with the attacks.
Video shows LA police officers shooting unarmed man
A federal judge has ordered the release of a video showing three Los Angeles-area police officers fatally shooting an unarmed man in 2013, saying the public had the right to review the footage.
US District Judge Stephen Wilson said he saw no reason not to release the video after the city of Gardena, just south of downtown Los Angeles, paid victim Ricardo Diaz Zeferino's family what local media reported was a $4.7 million settlement.
As taxpayers were footing the bill they had a right to see the footage, the judge said.
Attorneys for Mr Zeferino's relatives and several media outlets had pushed for the video's release amid a national debate over police use of force following a string of fatal shootings of unarmed black and Latino men.
The video, which viewers may find disturbing, can be seen here.
Panel to review defective blocks
Minister of State Joe McHugh has confirmed that the Government is to set up a panel of experts to address the issue of defective blocks in houses in Co Donegal.
Last year a group of homeowners whose houses were cracking due to defective blocks, set up the Mica Action Group to highlight the problem which they believe affects hundreds, if not thousands, of homes in Donegal.
They have been campaigning for a Government-backed redress scheme similar to that put in place for homes affected by pyrite.
Details relating to the panel and its terms of reference have yet to be set out but the Mica Action Group has welcomed the news of its establishment. MAG Chairman Phil McDaid said they hope that it will seek an explanation of the problem, its scale and research into technical solutions.
