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An American man accused of murdering the County Wexford student Nicola Furlong in Tokyo last may, told a court today he had no intention of killing her but acknowledged he was with her the night she died.

19 year old Richard Hinds from Memphis denies strangling Nicola Furlong in a Tokyo hotel room.

From Tokyo Paul Murphy , who is covering the court case for the Irish Independent.

With news emerging at the weekend that it cost the state €17m last year keeping 27 troubled children in care, it begs the question ‘how can the country’s meagre resources best be spent on its young?’

Child benefit has been the target of successive cuts over almost every budget since the beginning of the economic downturn, much to the upset of both parents and pressure groups alike.

But how can children’s allowance be paid fairly without inadvertently discriminating against one child over another or costing a fortune to administer.

Mary Murphy was on the advisory committee to the government on tax and social welfare which led to the Mangan report which somewhat controversially suggested a twin track approach to the payment of children’s allowance and she joined Pat as did Willie O’Dea Fianna Fail spokesperson on social protection.

Pat was joined in studio this morning by Professor Jim Lucey, Medical
Director of St Patrick’s University Hospital and clinical Professor of
psychiatry at Trinity College. Today we spoke about one method of recovery….learning new ways to overcome harmful
behavior.

Bacteria aren’t always fussy about where to settle down and multiply; the gut of a human, a pig or a cow will do nicely. But they’re not the only thing we share with farm animals. When the bacteria turn nasty, we use many of the same antibiotics to treat our infections.

We know that antibiotic resistance is a problem. “One of the most serious public health challenges we face”, says the head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention & Control, Dr Marc Sprenger. Hardly a surprise, given that it kills 25,000 Europeans each year.

The European Commission wants to do something about this. They published a plan in 2011. Half of the actions address use of antibiotics on farms.

But it turns out that we know little about antibiotic use on Irish farms, because the Department of Agriculture does not collect the information.

Ella McSweeney has written on this issue for the Irish Times and she joined Pat this morning.

For 3 Millennia athletes and young adults have experimented with performance enhancing agents, and drugs. Throughout time the abusers have denied the practice, endeavoured to evade detection and hidden behind the veracity, or lack of, in the rules and laws governing sport.

But most of these men and women are heroes to the young people that seek to emulate their achievements and many of whom may look to performance enhancing substances at a young age in order to achieve the form or physique necessary to get to that next step.

In his book Drugs, Sport And The Young Adult, Dr Conor O’Brien who has spent over 20 years working in the area, highlights the nuts and bolts of drug misuse to the guardians and opinion formers of vulnerable young people.

Last Friday was the last day when farmers could legally burn gorse on their land until the new season opens in September. Following a change to the law some years ago, which reduced the burning season, farmers burning gorse land from now until the season opens will be liable to prosecution. Brian O’Connell spent time in the Derrynasaggert Mountains close to Killarney, last Friday witnessing some gorse fires.