A senior garda responsible for processing speeding fines is to appear before a Cork judge to explain why a retired teacher’s attempts to pay a fine had been "frustrated by bureaucracy".

A judge yesterday told a group of speed camera van staff it would be a total waste of time and public money for them to return to the district court until a High Court challenge to the system is ruled upon.

There was no sign of any old copies of The Beano or Dandy lying around when a judge inspected a speed camera van yesterday.

A judge has said what the men behind the glass do in their speed camera vans has long been shrouded in mystery, with people wondering if they spend their time reading the Beano or the Dandy.

A situation whereby speed-camera operators who come to court but fail to prosecute alleged speeding motorists for “one bad reason after another” has been described as “a complete waste of public money” by one judge.

One of the world’s largest private yachts is due to slip in to a Cork marina today, further cementing the south coast’s reputation as a ‘must-see stop-off’ for the super-rich cruise set.

A total of 18 allegations of sexual abuse were made against 10 priests in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin over the past 37 years.

EDUCATION on the northside of Limerick will reach a milestone tomorrow when the €12 million St Nessan’s Community College at Moylish opens.

IRISH people will not be bullied into becoming puppets for Europe, those who voted no to the Lisbon Treaty said.

FOR some it was deadly serious, for others a bit of a laugh.

The gunman who killed eight people in a US shopping mall shooting “just snapped”, he said in a suicide note released today.

CLEM McMAHON was relaxed as he stood outside arena one at a sunny Millstreet Horse Show yesterday, taking a passing interest in his rivals as they attempted to better his time in the jump-off of a Boomerang qualifier.

GARDAÍ investigating the rape of a 14-year-old girl in Waterford city in the early hours of Monday morning have appealed to all passengers who were on a Bus Éireann coach with the victim to come forward.

Former Rangers striker John McDonald has urged the club to make a move for Kenny Miller.

PROPOSALS to decentralise 200 jobs to Mallow could take 10 years to complete because Fáilte Ireland staff want to remain in Dublin.

A COUPLE who were held at gunpoint by raiders who broke into their hotel were back at work yesterday, adamant not to let the ordeal get to them.

CRIMINAL charges may yet arise from a freak bus accident in Waterford last year that caused 19 people to be treated in hospital after a bus mounted a packed pavement on the city’s quayside.

BIG in every way, that’s a scheme of five new luxury homes at Mill Reef Creek in the mid-Cork town of Macroom.

A SCHOOL in Waterford has been closed after vandals set a car alight and forced it through the rear entrance of the building, causing tens of thousands of euro in damage.

GARDAÍ in Waterford say they are hopeful of making a positive identification of a man who allegedly raped a young woman in the city centre before Christmas.

TWO women were receiving treatment at Waterford Regional Hospital yesterday following two separate stabbing incidents over a 24-hour period.

SPEND it like Beckham!

GARDAÍ in Waterford have warned residents to be vigilant when dealing with door-to-door callers following a series of break-ins at a number of houses in the city.

Fireworks and bonfires will endanger children’s safety over the next week. Irish Examiner reporters look at the measures being taken to prevent accidents.

A MAN slightly injured in Limerick’s third shooting incident this week told gardaí he hid for more than an hour as the gunman searched to finish him off.

CONCERN has been raised about the level of violence used in mobile phone thefts.

Hundreds of jobs have been safeguarded in Britain thanks to a £115m (€166.1m) project to build a new transmission system for Ford cars, it was announced today.

Gardaí say they need the public’s help to combat public disorder in Waterford, says South-East Correspondent Niamh Nolan.

TWO investigations are continuing into the bus crash on Waterford’s quayside last week which resulted in a large number of casualties.

THE city-centre pavement in Waterford was packed with shoppers and elderly passengers when the number 5 bus mounted the pavement shortly after 11am.

INFURIATED parents and students last night accused Education Minister Noel Dempsey of double standards as he attempts to close their 150 year-old secondary school.

EDDIE AHERN will miss the second and third days of the Craven meeting at Newmarket next week after receiving a suspension for a whip offence when winning on Palamedes at Windsor yesterday.

Northern Ireland’s hard-pressed farmers are being urged to look to new markets - specifically one worth almost £1.5bn (€2.3bn) a year – supplying Britain's florists.

“FOR the man who has everything … including penalty points.”

SUPERMAN star Christopher Reeve’s amazing improvement has stunned doctors, who say it is the first documented case of such progress over paralysis, years after catastrophic spinal cord injury.

SUPERMAN actor Christopher Reeve, who was paralysed in a riding accident seven years ago, can now move some of his fingers and toes, the star’s doctors have said.

Doctors say Christopher Reeve can now move some of his fingers and toes.