Doctors call for HSE extension for under six free-care sign up
The Irish College of GPs, which represents 2,700 family doctors, has called for an extension of the current HSE deadline, for GPs to sign up to the planned new free-care scheme for the under sixes.
It says the timeline, 25 May, is overly ambitious and making such fundamental changes in such a short time frame could lead to adverse effects and unintended consequences.
The college has also expressed concern over the workload implications & infrastructural support for GPs under the planned scheme.
Start of FitzPatrick trial further delayed
The start of the evidence in the trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick has been delayed again and is now not due to begin until late next week.
At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this week Judge Mary Ellen Ring said that legal argument in the absence of the jury would continue for a number of days.
Jurors were told last week that an illness is causing difficulty in the trial which has been repeatedly delayed for the last three weeks.
They were asked then to return to court on Wednesday but were subsequently notified that the case would not start in evidence before them until next Monday.
Judge Ring said they would be notified again by the Courts Service and told not to come back until next Thursday. She said that they will be told to "keep their phones on".
Baby penguins stolen from Norwegian aquarium
Norwegian police are searching for three baby penguins stolen from an aquarium in a suspected student prank.
The three Humboldt penguin chicks and one egg vanished early yesterday from the Aalesund Aquarium on Norway's west coast,
Police charged a number of youths for endangering animals by breaking into the aquarium, based on video surveillance evidence, but none of them admitting taking the penguins.
The chicks are about three weeks old and weigh only around 300 grams each.
Second incinerator 'the preferred option' for waste problem
The Connacht Ulster Waste Region has said a second incinerator is probably the preferred option to deal with Ireland's waste but is not the only option.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Kevin Swift, Waste Coordinator for the Connacht Ulster Waste Region, said the country was producing 2.2 million tonnes of waste annually and was heavily dependent on the export of waste.
Mr Swift said all three waste authorities believed a second incinerator is necessary.
'Stormin' Mormon' to face Holyfield in charity bout
Former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney is to face former heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield in a charity boxing match.
The 'Stormin' Mormon' Romney and 'Real Deal' Holyfield have warmed up for their Salt Lake City showdown with some tongue-in-cheek trash talking in a video posted online.
The fight is in aid of Charity Vision, a local organisation that provides eye surgery and vision care in the developing world.
