High Court settlement
Two screening laboratories have admitted in the High Court that they were in breach of their duty when they each failed to report abnormalities in smear tests of a woman who later died of cervical cancer.
Irene Teap died aged 35 in July 2017, after being diagnosed with stage 2 cancer in September 2015.
She had received negative smear test results in 2010 and 2013.
On Thursday, Ms Teap’s family settled its High Court action against the Health Service Executive and the two laboratories.
Electricity concerns
Electricity supply is going to be “quite tight” for the next two weeks, the Tánaiste has said.
Leo Varadkar said an amber energy alert could be issued due to low temperatures and low wind speed affecting supply.
But he moved to assure people that households will not be affected in the “unlikely” event that there is a shortage of electricity.
Dowdall evidence
Judges at the Special Criminal Court trial of Gerard 'The Monk' Hutch, who is accused of the murder of Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne at the Regency Hotel, have ruled that the evidence to be given by former co-accused and now State's witness Jonathan Dowdall is admissible in the trial, despite defence objections.
The three judges were delivering their ruling on a defence application challenging the admissibility of evidence to be given by ex-Sinn Féin councillor Dowdall, who was a former co-accused of Mr Hutch.
Dowdall intends to give evidence in the coming days implicating Mr Hutch in the murder at the Regency Hotel. Dowdall has already been sentenced to four years by the non-jury court for the lesser offence of facilitating the murder and is being assessed for the Witness Protection Programme when he gets out of prison
Rapist appeal
Notorious criminal and child rapist Stephen 'Rossi' Walsh has had his conviction for indecent assault overturned after successfully arguing that he could not get a fair trial due to adverse pre-trial media coverage.
The 75-year-old, with former addresses at Belgrave Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, and Coologmartin, Donadea, Co Kildare, was convicted on October 21st, 2010 by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of two counts of indecent assault before Judge Pat McCartan.
Walsh was sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
Brittney Griner trade
Jailed basketball star Brittney Griner has been released by Russia – with the US handing over notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange, officials have said.
The high-level prisoner swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieves a top goal for US President Joe Biden but carries a heavy price and leaves behind an American jailed for nearly four years in Russia.
The deal, the second such exchange in eight months with Russia, has procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad.
