A recent survey on sexual health service needs aims to help groups provide better assistance for young people in north and west Belfast. Commissioned by the Health Action Zone, the findings help to point up any gaps in the current provision.

University of Ulster academics have teamed up with a local charity to produce a support package for parents of children with autism. Simple Steps, which will contain a DVD, as well as hard copy support material for those living with autism and professionals treating it, is the first of its kind in Europe.

A 34-year-old Georgian national has been jailed for ten years for raping and falsely imprisoning a Polish woman in Kerry on her second night in the country.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has asked the Court of Criminal Appeal to set an early hearing date in the case of Adam Keane, the Co Clare man who received a three year suspended sentence for rape.

The Children’s Ombudsman has reported a four-fold increase in the number of complaints received by her office during its second year of operation. Emily Logan said today that she received 790 complaints last year, compared to 177 in 2005.

A Dublin teenager, who became the first person in the State to be charged with a newly designated offence for smuggling drugs into a prison, has been given a one-year sentence.

Voluntary organisations bidding to make mental health services a major general election issue today take their campaign to Dublin. The Mental Health Action Group wants to see full implementation of the A Vision For Change blueprint, launched in January 2006.

One of the feelgood tunes used to inspire delegates at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis contains references to illegal drug-taking, it emerged today.

The Irish Nurses Organisation has rejected suggestions that the delay in opening the new maternity hospital in Cork was due to a demand for more money.

New passport applicants in Belfast will be quizzed on their family history, bank details and past addresses as part of a 20-minute interview. An estimated 10,042 people each year will attend face-to-face interviews at an office in Norwood House on Great Victoria Street, and be expected to know detailed answers from a pool of 200 questions.