In Brief: Asperger's boy drove stolen car

A 17-YEAR-OLD Asperger's Syndrome sufferer who was caught driving a stolen car after he had already been given a road ban has been detained for six months.

The boy has also been diagnosed with having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Judge Ann Ryan heard at the Dublin Children's Court.

The teenager, who has 27 criminal convictions, had been found guilty of driving a stolen Honda Civic in Ballyfermot, in west Dublin, on March 2 last year, and being intoxicated in public on another date.

Death sentence over stabbing

A condemned inmate was moved to a southern Ohio prison where he was scheduled to be executed today for fatally stabbing the 15-year-old son of his former employers during a 1985 farmhouse burglary.

Mark Wiles (49) arrived at the Lucasville facility, prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said.

The execution would end an unofficial six-month moratorium on the death penalty while the state and a federal judge wrangled over Ohio's lethal injection procedures.

Mexico raises volcano alert

Authorities in Mexico have raised the alert level for the Popocatepetl volcano south east of Mexico City due to increasing activity.

It is now at the fifth step on a seven-level warning scale.

A lava dome is growing in the volcano's crater, the National Disaster Prevention Centre said.

The 17,886ft volcano also has been spewing fragments of incandescent rock recently, as well as water vapour and ash.

Girl wins ¤575k for birth injury

A TEENAGE girl is to receive €575,000 in settlement of her High Court action over a shoulder injury allegedly suffered due to negligence at birth. The settlement was made without admission of liability.

Donna O'Sullivan (13), St Colmcille Road, Grranabraher, Cork, sued the HSE through her mother Theresa. It was claimed Donna suffered shoulder injuries as a result of alleged negligence at the time of her birth at St Finbarr's Hospital Cork on January 11, 1999.