WHILE Michael Noonan has his fingers crossed that NAMA has got its haircut plans right in revaluing assets of troubled developers, the finance minister knows he has got the real deal when it comes to a proper trim.

An attack on a Lithuanian man in the centre of Newry, Co Down, early today was being treated by police as a hate crime.

A number of polling stations traditionally used for voting in Limerick have disappeared from the list of places for The Lisbon Treaty poll, a spokesman for Republican Sinn Féin said today.

A LEBANESE man questioned by gardaí investigating the brutal murder of Latvian woman Baiba Saulite last November was arrested in Limerick months earlier when gardaí foiled an elaborate murder plot by a Limerick feud gang.

A LOADED handgun, fitted with a silencer, was given to an Egyptian national by a Limerick gang for delivery to a major drugs dealer in Dublin, a court heard yesterday.

PLANS are being drawn up for a major development on a site adjacent to a historic church in Limerick.

GARDAÍ foiled a gangland hit in Limerick yesterday when they swooped on three suspected assassins as they went to pick up the murder weapon.

Sinn Féin has blamed loyalists returning from the abandoned Love Ulster march in Dublin for riots in Portadown, Co Armagh, early yesterday morning.

Sectarian rioting which left six PSNI officers injured may have been triggered by the violence that engulfed Dublin, an MP claimed tonight.

DEFENCE Minister Willie O’Dea yesterday announced a €33.5 million upgrade programme for army barracks around the country.

Four people were arrested after police seized drugs worth £200,000 (€295.000) in a planned swoop in Newry, Co Down, early today.

Gardai in Limerick have arrested a man after shots were fired through the windows of a pub on Edward Street shortly before midnight last night.