A young man was ordered to do 150 hours of community service yesterday after gardaí were previously called to a McDonald’s outlet because of his threatening behaviour of carrying a hurley.

A fund's application for a €1.7m judgment against former AIB and Central Bank director Bernard Somers in relation to a loan secured on various assets, including his home in Foxrock, Dublin, has been adjourned by the Commercial Court.

Pepper Money, a unit of an Australian loans giant which has Irish bases in Shannon and Dublin, has said it will provide corporate loans for the first time in Ireland after it identified a huge demand for companies and professionals to refinance existing loans or buy new properties.

The production will consist of two Annies and two teams of girls cast, due to the number of performances.

Becky Chamber’s new novel, A Close and Common Orbit, is the second book in the Wayfarers series. 

A mother of two has won an appeal over a financial institution’s objection to her entering a personal insolvency arrangement to pay off a €220,000 debt on a house she and her husband bought in 2007 for €300,000.

A mother and daughter face losing their home, valued at €55,000, after the High Court upheld objections by a financial services firm to her proposed personal insolvency arrangement (PIA).

The €1.64m paid by a leading special needs charity to 14 senior managers, without the knowledge of the HSE, were outstanding pension liabilities and other contractual obligations.

We had a few days off last week and were inclined to take a break in the Deep South. 

The entry of Pepper Homeloans is good news but will fail to loosen to any significant extent the grip Bank of Ireland and AIB holds over the Irish mortgage market, a leading mortgage expert has said.

A man who is celebrating holding on to his home after securing a 53% mortgage writedown required morphine doses to deal with severe migraines while his wife contemplated suicide over the debt.

A Limerick couple who received letters from their lender on three successive Christmas Eves telling them they had to leave their property are to hold on to their home after securing a mortgage writedown of 53%.

A robot equipped with a “heart” designed to not only recognise human emotions, but react with simulations of anger, joy and irritation, is going on sale in Japan.

Pepper loves treats - and nothing will get in her way.

“If there was a hole I could have jumped into and covered it over and gone to sleep and never woke up, both my wife and I would have taken that option.”

Japanese telecoms group Softbank is to incorporate artificial intelligence technology from IBM into its empathetic robot Pepper, which goes on sale later this month.

Toy Show: The Christmas Toy Show gets under way tonight with a 90-minute show on TV3, hosted by Brian McFadden, Karen Koster and Jedward at 8pm. 

TECH FIRM UNVEILS ‘EMOTIONAL’ ROBOT

Danske bank has announced that Pepper Asset Servicing will administer the accounts of their 14,000 mortgages holders after they pull out of consumer banking in Ireland.

Wexford 0-18 Offaly 1-9

Pepper Brasserie & Grill at The Bram Stoker Hotel,

A former University of California policeman who stirred public outrage by pepper-spraying peaceful student protesters has been awarded $38,000 (€27,500) in worker’s compensation for psychiatric damage which he claimed to have suffered from the 2011 incident, the university said.

Henry Cavill and Kaley Cuoco have reportedly split after less than two weeks together.

In America, the government fought back in the war against drugs by tightening federal policy so that anyone found in possession of narcotics could be persuaded to testify against friends in order to reduce their sentence.

Rami Gershon and Tom Rogic have been handed debuts in a much-changed Celtic side for their SPL clash with Inverness at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium today.

Rangers 0 Inverness 3

Hugh Jackman and Lee Daniels are working on a movie about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

2008 Olympian Peter O’Leary and David Burrows of Ireland have won the first race of the day for the Star class in the BACARDI Miami Sailing Week (BMSW) presented by EFG Bank.

STANDING at the foot of Slieve Donard shows why the Mourne Mountains are credited as the inspiration for writer CS Lewis’ magical land of Narnia.

LAWYERS representing convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan argue in newly filed court documents that a bullet was switched in evidence at his trial and new forensic details show he is innocent of the 1968 killing of US senator Robert F Kennedy.

Helena Bonham Carter is in talks to star in 'The Lone Ranger'.

Gwyneth Paltrow may make a cameo appearance in 'The Avengers'.

Parole board members have refused to free Robert F Kennedy’s convicted assassin after ruling that he had not shown enough remorse and did not understand the severity of a crime that was mourned by a nation four decades ago.

A contestant on the Sky One talent show 'Must Be the Music' has made it into the UK top 10 singles chart.

A previously unseen “mystery” George Harrison lyric went on public display today.

An Irish soldier injured in a bomb blast in Afghanistan is recovering well, his father said today.

A woman with Hepatitis C who bit a garda after breaching a barring order from her mother's home has been given a two-year sentence by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today.

America’s golfers followed last week’s successful defence of the amateur Walker Cup with a brilliant display to keep hold of the Solheim Cup at Halmstad in Sweden today.

Anna Nicole Smith's autopsy report is set to be released on Monday, following weeks of speculation over the star's death.

A BUSINESSMAN whose home and offices were raided by police in connection with an investigation into an IRA crime empire admitted links with the family of an alleged IRA godfather yesterday.

Two men whose business was raided by police investigating a UK crime empire linked to alleged IRA godfather Thomas “Slab” Murphy, will protest their innocence today.

BRITISH police and gardaí are still examining documents seized during raids in the Manchester area, which may be connected to alleged IRA money laundering.

Police arrested two people they believe robbed a woman’s home and burned her dog to death in her oven, authorities in Savannah, Georgia, said today.