The governor of Illinois has abolished the state’s death penalty.

DEAN KELLY denied Donegal side Bonagee United a shock victory over Crumlin United in the FAI Ford Senior Cup second round yesterday.

Fingal 7-15 Tyrone 0-7

Thousands of people attended the opening of a £30m (€34m) Holocaust museum in a Chicago suburb which became famous for an aborted march by neo-Nazis.

From an Antarctic research base and the Great Pyramids of Egypt to the Empire State Building in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago, illuminated patches of the globe went dark for Earth Hour, a campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

GREATER co-operation on transatlantic research between universities and businesses is almost certainly on the cards following the visit to Cork of a high-powered trade delegation from Illinois.

CORK companies wishing to develop more trade in the US market will have free use of offices and phones in Illinois.

BUSINESSMAN Tom Gilmartin claimed he didn’t have the air fare when he said he would not be present for a scheduled board meeting concerning the west Dublin development at Quarryvale, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

FORMER Fianna Fáil deputy GV Wright told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he dismissed as “political rhetoric” ex-Environment Minister Michael Smith’s claims about planning corruption in Dublin in the early 1990s.

A FORMER Fianna Fáil councillor admitted to the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he received a donation from Frank Dunlop — having previously denied the lobbyist’s claim of getting IR£2,000 in cash.

IT WAS one of Fianna Fáil’s best ever fundraising nights when former taoiseach Albert Reynolds was guest of honour at a private dinner attended by top Cork businessmen, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

A FORMER Department of Finance principal officer Liam Murphy told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday that a special tax status for Blanchardstown Shopping Centre had been ruled out in 1990, three years before Taoiseach Bertie Ahern allegedly received £30,000 for blocking the centre’s bid.

FORMER developer Tom Gilmartin accused Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday of putting out “garbage” against him and insisted he had a right of reply.

SLIGO-born developer Tom Gilmartin described yesterday how he planned a “special” development for west Dublin in the early 1990s.

CIVIL servants were not aware property developer John Corcoran was making substantial political donations to Fianna Fáil while urging then Environment Minister Padraig Flynn to give special tax concessions to his Dublin shopping centre at Blanchardstown, the Mahon Planning Tribunal heard yesterday.

FORMER taoiseach Albert Reynolds allegedly got the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to block developer Tom Gilmartin’s plans to acquire lands for a proposed shopping complex, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

LABOUR TD Joan Burton believed “something improper” was going on between developers and some of her Dublin County Council colleagues in the early 1990s, she told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday.

BUSINESSMAN Tom Gilmartin insisted yesterday he had previously told lawyers for the Mahon Tribunal a close associate of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had demanded £500,000 for Mr Ahern’s support.

FINANCE Minister Brian Cowen yesterday defended his backing for a commercial enterprise near Dublin Airport headed by a businessman from a Fianna Fáil family.

IRISH TIMES editor Geraldine Kennedy and the paper’s public affairs correspondent Colm Keena are to appear before the Mahon Planning Tribunal this morning over their leak of payments to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

FORMER supermarket boss Ben Dunne — who admitted giving the late Taoiseach Charles J Haughey up to £2 million — is due to give evidence to the Mahon Tribunal now investigating the rezoning of land near Dublin Airport.

LOBBYIST Frank Dunlop has insisted he gave a £1,000 bribe in 1993 to Sean Gilbride, then a Fianna Fáil member of Dublin County Council, to sign a rezoning motion on behalf of landowner Paul Walls.

MONARCH Properties made mystery payments of £21,500 around the time it secured vital rezoning of its south Dublin lands, the Mahon Planning Tribunal heard yesterday.

THE driver of a car which plunged into a ditch, killing two school friends, phoned the parents of both teenagers moments after the impact, appealing to them to rush to the site.

FORMER Government press secretary Frank Dunlop alleged at the Mahon planning tribunal yesterday that a school associate of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern paid him £5,000 in cash to lobby councillors.

FORMER Monarch Properties development company executive Eddie Sweeney firmly denied at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he was aware lobbyist Frank Dunlop was going to bribe councillors.

FIANNA FÁIL councillor Tony Fox has been advised by the Flood Tribunal to reconsider his evidence over the weekend after members of the tribunal suggested some of his answers to the inquiry have defied common sense.

FIANNA FÁIL councillor Tony Fox has admitted that he failed to notify a party inquiry into payments to politicians about a large donation from a property company.

Venetia Williams is the beneficiary of a dispute between Irish trainer Michael Hourigan and the owners of Grand National candidate Inis Cara.