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Gardaí are appealing for witnesses following a bank raid in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, this morning.

A man armed with a gun held up staff at the Ulster Bank on George's Street and escaped with an undisclosed sum of cash.

No shots were fired and nobody was injured during the raid.
The raid happened shortly before 11am.

RTE

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A man has appeared in court again today in connection with the death of a man who died after being attacked as his car was parked in a lay-by near Dublin Airport last year.

27-year-old Ian Daly with an address at Moatview Drive, Priorswood, Dublin 17, had previously been charged with the manslaughter of Valeri Ranert at Naul Road, Swords, near Dublin Airport on 30 April 2007.

He was also charged with assault causing harm.
But at a sitting of Swords District Court today those two charges were struck out and two new charges were entered.

Mr Daly is now charged with the of murder Mr Ranert and the unlawful seizure of a vehicle on the same date.

Mr Daly was remanded in custody to Cloverhill prison.

He is due to appear before Cloverhill District Court on Tuesday.

RTE

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Three people have appeared before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin following an ongoing Garda investigation into dissident Republican and criminal activity.

All three had been arrested in Dublin at the weekend.

66-year-old Barry Fitzpatrick of 169 Ashlawn park, Ballybrack, Dublin, was charged with membership of an unlawful organisation.
21-year-old Stephen Verhoeven of Brookfield Terrace, Blackrock, Dublin, was charged with possession of two revolvers and 20 rounds of ammunition.

22-year-old Dean Byrne of Coolevin, Ballybrack, Dublin, was charged iwth possession of five handguns and 64 rounds of ammunition.

All were remanded in custody to appear in court again next week.

RTE

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Israel will today halt bombing Gaza for three hours every day.

Bombings will be halted between 11am and 2am Irish time.

The announcement came hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would open a humanitarian corridor into Gaza, where it has waged a deadly 12-day campaign against Hamas.
'In order to prevent a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to adopt a proposal by the security establishment to open a humanitarian corridor into the Gaza Strip to assist the population,' said a statement from his office.

'This involves opening up geographical areas for limited periods of time during which the population will be able to receive the aid and stock up.'

Israel have today pounded Hamas fighters with artillery shells and air missiles.

An air strike killed a Palestinian gunman and wounded three in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood, where some of the heaviest fighting has occurred since Israeli troops invaded the crowded coastal strip on Saturday.

Clashes were continuing in Zeitun, and there were reports of air strikes on the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah.

The latest fighting followed Israeli strikes yesterday on three UN-run schools that killed at least 48 people, prompting growing calls for an immediate ceasefire.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was 'deeply dismayed' by the strikes on the schools and called them 'totally unacceptable.'

Egypt's president and veteran Middle East peace mediator, Hosni Mubarak, was pushing for an immediate ceasefire.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Mr Mubarak had invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for talks on his proposal in Cairo.

'I know that there is already for tomorrow a technical group from both countries ready to work,' Mr Kouchner said. 'So we are waiting for the answer.'

After talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday, Mr Mubarak invited the Israelis and Palestinians to 'an urgent meeting to reach arrangements and guarantees that would not allow the repeat of the current escalation.'

Such guarantees would include 'securing the borders and ... opening of the border crossings and lifting the siege.'

Mr Mubarak said he was also proposing an immediate ceasefire that would allow aid to enter Gaza.

Mr Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the UN Security Council presidency, said a resolution on Gaza would 'complicate' the task of achieving peace.

Libya later submitted a new draft resolution demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire to be respected by both parties.

A Hamas delegation was already in Cairo for talks on the crisis.

Egypt brokered a six-month truce that ended on 19 December.

Hamas refused to renew the deal, accusing Israel of reneging on it by not relaxing the crippling blockade of Gaza it first imposed when the Islamists seized control of the territory in 2007.

Mr Olmert earlier said the rocket attacks and weapons smuggling from Egypt into Gaza must end before Israel halts its offensive.

Last night Israel said it would set up a humanitarian corridor to counter the crisis caused by its offensive in Gaza.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said the measure was proposed by Israeli military chiefs and would entail granting periodic access to various areas to allow Palestinians to stock up on vital goods.

RTE

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The pound has risen to its highest level against the euro for three weeks, ahead of the Bank of England's interest rates announcement on Thursday.

The euro fell 0.5% against the pound to close at 90.1 pence, well below its recent high of 98.04 pence.

"There's been a change in sentiment for sterling," said Neil Jones, at Mizuho Corporate Bank in London.

UK rates are expected to be cut by 0.5 percentage points to 1.5%, their lowest in the Bank of England's history.

Sterling gains

The pound has weakened steadily against the euro ever since last October.
This was because as the Bank of England cut UK interest rates to counter the effects of the economic slowdown, the pound - and sterling-denominated investments - became less attractive to foreign investors.

Just after Christmas the pound almost fell to parity the euro, but since then it has been gaining back some of its lost ground.

"The market is still cutting out short sterling positions and there's fresh corporate-style money from abroad coming into the UK," said Neil Jones.

At the same time, this week the euro itself has been falling against other currencies.

European economic figures have showed that the eurozone economy is weakening, and inflation is easing, which raised prospects that the European Central Bank may cut rates next week.

But with interest rates expected to fall sharply to their lowest in the Bank of England's 315-year history, many currency analysts say there is no feeling of an imminent recovery for the pound.

"It's very hard to love sterling given the continued news flow," said Paul Robson, at RBS.

However, he said that the euro has probably already seen its peak.

"You're seeing a lot of unwinding of a lot of excessive moves that we saw in December against a range of currencies."

"Going forward we don't like the euro much."

BBC