Settlement in balcony collapse case
BERKELEY, Calif. – Relatives of six college students who died when a balcony collapsed in Berkeley have reached a settlement with the owners of the apartment building and the company that managed it.
Attorney Joseph R. Lucia said in a statement last month that terms of the settlement with owner BlackRock and management firm Greystar were confidential.
The students, most of them from Ireland, were at a June 2015 birthday party when the balcony collapsed and sent them 50 feet down to the street. Seven others were injured. Previous tenants reported seeing mushrooms on the balcony, indicating rotting wood.
The dead included cousins Olivia Burke of Ireland and Ashley Donohoe of California.
Attorneys for the Donohoe family say they’ll continue pushing for changes to building codes and reporting requirements for shoddy construction work.

Adams to quit Sinn Fein leadership post
LONDON – Gerry Adams, the divisive politician known around the world as the face of the Irish republican movement as it shifted from violence to peace, announced last month that he was stepping down as leader of Sinn Fein next year after heading the party for over 30 years.
The 69-year-old veteran politician, who has been president of Northern Ireland’s second-largest party since 1983, told the party’s annual conference in Dublin he would not run in the next Irish parliamentary elections. ``Leadership means knowing when it is time for change and that time is now,’’ he said, adding the move was part of an ongoing process of leadership transition within the party.
A divisive figure, Adams has long been denounced by some Adams as a terrorist while others hail him as a peacemaker.
He was a key figure in Ireland’s republican movement, which seeks to take Northern Ireland out of the U.K. and unite it with the Republic of Ireland.
The dominant faction of the movement’s armed wing, the Provisional IRA, killed nearly 1,800 people during a failed 1970-1997 campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the U.K. It renounced violence and surrendered its weapons in 2005.
Although many identify Adams as a member of the IRA since 1966 and a commander for decades, he has always insisted he was never a member.
He was key in the peace process that saw the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the formation of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland that is now having a difficult time.
Many believe Sinn Fein’s popularity among voters is hampered by the presence of leaders from Ireland’s era of Troubles. The party is expected to elect a successor next year. Current deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald was seen as a favorite to succeed Adams.

More back and forth on Brexit
LONDON – Britain is reportedly planning to offer more money to settle its bill with the European Union in a bid to unblock stalled Brexit negotiations – but only if the EU agrees to start discussing a future free-trade deal. The size of the bill, covering commitments Britain has made while an EU member, is a key sticking point in divorce talks. Britain has previously offered about 20 billion euros ($23 billion), but the EU wants at least 60 billion euros ($70 billion).
British media said late last month that the Cabinet’s Brexit committee had agreed to increase the offer to about 40 billion euros ($46 billion).
Prime Minister Theresa May’s office declined to confirm the amount, but said that ``the U.K. and the EU should step forward together’’ to unblock the negotiations. “It remains our position that nothing’s agreed until everything’s agreed in negotiations with the EU,’’ Downing Street said.
The 27 other EU leaders are due to decide at a Dec. 14-15 summit whether there has been sufficient progress on the divorce terms for talks to move on to future relations and trade.
With Britain due to leave the EU in March 2019, U.K. leaders are keen to start work on a free-trade deal with the bloc. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that if that is to happen, Britain must come up with solutions on the key issues: the Brexit bill, the status of the U.K. border with EU member Ireland and the rights of citizens affected by Britain’s exit.
Britain, however, says those issues can’t be settled without also discussing future relations.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said that ``the Brexit talks have been tough’’ but had made good progress.``We now must start talking about our future relationship,’’ he said at a conference in London.
Meanwhile, political instability on both sides of the English Channel is fueling Brexit uncertainty. In Germany, talks on a potential coalition between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and two smaller parties have collapsed, raising the prospect of new elections at a crunch time for Brexit talks.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill is designed to prevent a legal vacuum by converting some 12,000 EU laws into British statute on the day the U.K. leaves the bloc in March 2019. But many lawmakers claim the bill gives the government too much power to amend legislation without parliamentary scrutiny.

Seattle-Dublin flights via Aer Lingus due next spring
SEATTLE – Nonstop flights from Seattle to Dublin will start next spring.
The Seattle Times reports Irish carrier Aer Lingus as saying the service will begin May 18, 2018. It will be provided four times a week.
Because Dublin airport has its own US Customs and Border Protection facility, passengers and their luggage will be pre-cleared in Ireland before departure, with no need to go through passport control on arrival in Seattle.
This will be the first pre-cleared trans-Atlantic flight to fly into Seattle.
Aer Lingus also will provide Seattle passengers connections through Dublin to 24 U.K. and European cities.
Aer Lingus will fly a 265-seat Airbus A330-200 with 23 flat-bed business class seats and 243 economy class seats.

18 months for Irish man in rhino horn smuggling
MIAMI – An Irish man has been sentenced to 18 months in US prison for the international smuggling of a cup carved from the horn of an endangered rhinoceros.
Court records show a Miami judge imposed the sentence last month on 40-year-old Michael Hegarty, who had pleaded guilty earlier this year to illegally trafficking the rhino horn cup. Hegarty was arrested in Belgium in January and extradited to the US in July.