THE HIGH Court will be asked on Monday to make orders for the winding up of four of the 14 companies in the Thomas Read group on the grounds they have no reasonable prospect of survival.

THE examiner appointed to a company which owns 21 of Dublin’s best known pubs and restaurants has been given High Court approval for “schemes of arrangement” for possible investment on the basis they will be separate but interdependent for each of the 14 companies which operate the hostelries.

An expert witness told a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that Garda Paul Daly hit a protester with his baton on the junction of Parliament St and Dame St during the "Reclaim the Streets" demonstration on May Day 2002.

Ten anthrax alerts are taking place around Ireland in counties Dublin, Wexford, Kerry and Clare.