Crash driver (15) gets road ban

A boy (15) has received a nine-month sentence and a six-year road ban for taking part in motor thefts and car chases.

One time, he crashed into the front garden of a house.

The boy pleaded guilty at the Children's Court to being involved in car thefts, which took place in Dublin in May and August.

Last month, he had been granted bail and he was due to be sentenced in February.

But his case was relisted at the Children's Court yesterday as a result of him being arrested on December 24 for a trespassing offence, which he also admitted.

Lottery winner feared killed

A TRUCK driver's assistant who won $30m (€20m) may have been murdered.

In 2006, Abraham Shakespeare (43) won the Florida lottery, but he vanished a few months ago.

His mother hopes he is somewhere in the Caribbean, lying on a beach and enjoying the good life away from all the hangers-on who were constantly hitting on him for money.

But the local sheriff has a more ominous theory: Mr Shakespeare was killed.

Sheriff Grady Judd said: "We're working this case as if it were a homicide."

Firm drops Sheen advert

US clothing firm Hanesbrands is ending its ad campaign featuring Charlie Sheen, following domestic violence charges against the actor.

Company spokesman Matt Hall said it was a "pretty standard, straightforward call" by the brand-marketing team given the allegations.

Mr Hall said Sheen (44) would not have been retained when his contract expired in the middle of the year.

Sheen has been used by the firm for almost two years.

Doctor takes his revenge

AN Indian-born doctor sought revenge by bombing the chairman of the state medical board, leaving him severely burned and without an eye.

Randeep Mann had been punished by the board after 10 of his patients fatally overdosed on drugs he prescribed.

A grand jury indicted Mann on three charges in connection with the February 2009 attack on Dr Trent Pierce.