The Irish Independent reports that drugs firm Elan and its research partner Biogen have proposed limits on the use of the multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri to reduce the risk of brain disease in patients.

The companies were addressing a Federal Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee yesterday ahead of the body's vote as to whether to allow sales of Tysabri to resume.

The firms said that they should be allowed to resume sales because Tysabri is better than existing treatments for the neurological disorder.

The drug was taken off the market last year after it was linked with two fatal cases of progressive multifocal leukencephalopathy (PML).

Trading in Elan shares was suspended yesterday before the meeting. They finished up 6.6pc at €11.30 before trading was stopped.

The FDA will vote tomorrow on the future of Tysabri.

According to the US National Institute of Health, studies suggest that Tysabri is twice as effective as other treatments but people taking it risk a one-in-1,000 chance of PML.

"Although data is limited, we seek to limit death and disability if PML occurs," said Carmen Bozic, Biogen's vice-president for drug safety and risk management, at a meeting in Maryland.

Tysabri's prescribing information should include the FDA's strictest warning, outlined in a black box, Biogen added.

It also said that patients would have to participate in a registry and would have to read and sign a form confirming they understood Tysabri's risks.

The Irish Independent also reports that the solicitor who defended Wayne O'Donoghue in the Robert Holohan murder trial received almost €600,000 in legal aid payments last year.

Figures released yesterday from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, in response to a Freedom of Information request, show Frank Buttimer received €582,075 through the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme in 2005 - the fifth highest amount in the country.

The overall figures show that last year the country's barristers and solicitors shared €37m through the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme - an increase of 38.5pc on the €26.7m which had been claimed in 2004.

The €10.3m rise over one year was yesterday described by Labour's Justice spokesman, Joe Costello, as excessive.

"Garda statistics last year show that reported crime was up 2.7pc and detected crime down by 1pc, so it is hard to see how there could be a 38pc increase in legal aid payments as the number of criminal cases would be more or less the same," he said.

The payments need to be independently audited on an annual basis to ensure there is value for money for taxpayers, he said.

The Irish Times reports that the Revenue Commissioners is to carry out random audits annually to investigate whether tax exiles are complying with residency rules that limit the amount of time they are allowed to reside in the country in any given year.

The audits will include travel records and other documentary evidence, which will be sought from individuals who make declarations to the Revenue Commissioners that they are resident outside the State for tax purposes.

The move follows a special investigation last year to establish whether there was compliance with the residency rules.

The investigation, carried out by the Revenue Commissioners large cases division, carried out an audit of nine individuals and found that they were all complying with the residency rule for declaring they were non-resident for tax purposes.

The audits are believed to have included an examination of travel records from both the individuals and "intelligence" gathered by inspectors. The nine were a cross section of individuals who have made non-resident tax declarations to the Revenue. The number of tax exiles is believed to be quite small, although the Revenue Commissioners have never released the exact figure.

Claiming non-residence for tax purposes can save wealthy individuals significant amounts of money, with all money earned outside the State not subject to income tax by the State.

Income earned within the State and profits by Irish-based companies belonging to a tax exile are still subject to tax, however.

In recent weeks Revenue Commissioners chairman Frank Daly wrote to the Minister for Finance Brian Cowen outlining the findings of the investigation and informing him that the Revenue would continue to carry out similar audits on an ongoing basis.

The audits, however, do not address the issue of the so-called "Cinderella rule", which enables tax exiles to increase the amount of time they spend in the State without breaking the rules governing non-residency.

Under the general rules, a person who claims non-resident status can spend no more than 183 days in the State in any tax year, and risks losing tax exile status if that limit is exceeded.

However under the Cinderella rule, introduced in 1994, if an individual leaves the jurisdiction before midnight on any given day, that day is not counted as one where they were in the State.

The rule has been sharply criticised by the Labour party as enabling tax exiles with private air transport to spend much of their time within the State without risking their tax exile status, although the Government has indicated that it does not intend to change the rule.

The Irish Times also reports that a High Court judge has given more time to a former National Irish Bank executive to file an affidavit in proceedings brought against him by the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

The director, Paul Appleby, is seeking orders under Section 160 of the Companies Act 1990 aimed at restraining eight former NIB executives or officials from being involved in the management of any company.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Peter Kelly was told the bank has disclosed additional documents to the solicitor for one of the eight, Dermott Boner, Chesterfield Avenue, Castleknock, Dublin, and that he required extra time to examine the documents.

The judge gave Mr Boner until April 28th to file an affidavit and said the case would be mentioned again on May 4th.

In a separate case arising from the same proceedings, the judge was told that solicitors for Frank Brennan, Ardglass, Dundrum, Dublin, had received a letter from the director seeking voluntary discovery of four categories of documents last Friday.

The judge was subsequently informed that a response to the director's request would be furnished by March 16th, and he put the case in for mention again on March 20th.

The eight former NIB directors or officials at the centre of the proceedings are: Jim Lacey, Pine Haven, Grove House Gardens, Blackrock, Co Dublin; Barry Seymour, Beaumond, Amersham, Bucks, England; Mr Boner; Michael Keane, Corr Castle, Howth, Co Dublin; Mr Brennan; Tom McMenamin, College Grove, Castleknock, Dublin; Patrick Byrne, St Helen's Road, Booterstown, Co Dublin; and Kevin Curran, Avondale Court, Blackrock, Co Dublin.

The Irish Examiner reports that Irish construction workers are the best-paid in the EU, but their work is worth more than twice that of the average for the industry.

Statistics for Irish workers productivity, especially in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, are usually very high but this reflects the accounting systems of foreign multinationals.

This does not apply to the construction industry, where Ireland is experiencing an ongoing boom.

Figures released by Eurostat compared some of Europe’s industries and service sectors.

This compared to an average for the EU 25 of €25,800.

The industry was worth €3 billion to the economy, compared to €16bn for pharmaceuticals.

A Construction Industry Federation spokesperson said: “It just proves what we have always said, that the industry in Ireland is highly productive.”

Latvians earned the least, costing their employers just €3,100 a year.

The value of their work was more than double this, making them the most cost effective workers in the EU.

The Financial Times reports that European Union leaders will on Wednesday be urged to back measures to improve energy security, including building an emergency gas stockpile, a new strategy for dealing with Russia and creating an energy regulator.

José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, will argue that without the new policy the EU risks disruptions to supply, as its dependency on imported fuel rises to 70 per cent of total demand by 2026.

A draft policy paper, seen by the Financial Times, will suggest EU legislation requiring member states to stockpile gas, to be released as a gesture of “solidarity” in times of disruption.

EU officials speculate that each country might be required to store up to two months’ worth of imported gas.

The document also calls for a new long-term partnership with Russia, Europe’s “most important energy supplier”, including asking Moscow to allow other countries to use its pipelines.

Although the paper is not specific on the subject, Europe might in exchange offer long-term gas supply contracts to Russia, and the possibility of opening its retail market to Russian suppliers such as Gazprom.

Mr Barroso is set to meet Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, next week to discuss energy policy and other issues before an EU summit on March 23.

The Commission president and Andris Piebalgs, EU energy commissioner, reworked the paper yesterday to stress the importance of making Europe’s internal energy market more competitive, to offset higher international energy prices to citizens and business.

They will propose a European energy regulator to promote and oversee the development of greater cross-border gas and electricity links to generate more competition.

But the creation of new bureaucratic structures would count for little, unless the Commission is able to halt the growing tendency in countries such as France and Spain to defend incumbent suppliers against cross-border takeovers.

Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, told the FT on Tuesday: “National champions have the incentive to protect their captive customer base and limit cross-border connections and competition.”

The Commission is investigating what it believes to be uncompetitive practices by some European energy companies.

The draft policy paper, which includes proposals to promote renewable energy, shies clear of some subjects, including the role of nuclear power or tough measures to cut fuel use by industry or the car sector.

Martin Bartenstein, industry minister of Austria, holder of the rotating EU presidency, backed plans to improve inter- connections between member states. “It is clear we need a regulatory authority,” he said.

The FT also reports that the number of illegal immigrants in the US has continued to grow by nearly half a million each year in spite of US efforts to increase security at the country's borders, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The study, by the Pew Hispanic Center, said that the population of unauthorised migrants reached between 11.5m and 12m last year, accounting for nearly a third of the foreign-born population in the US. That number is up from roughly 8.4m in 2000.

The continued rise was driven primarily by the strong demand for low-skilled work in the US. "What we're seeing is a labour migration that is tied to employment opportunities," said Jeffrey Passel, the study's author.

The findings come as the Senate is set to take up on Wednesday legislation aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigrants coming to the US. The Senate judiciary committee is launching a three-week effort to produce a bill that the committee's chairman, Republican Arlen Specter, hopes will create new legal channels for foreign workers in the US.

The proposal, outlined by committee staff on Monday, would allow those illegally in the US to apply for renewable two-year work visas, and would create a new guest worker programme to allow new workers to come to the US legally.

That contrasts with legislation that passed the House of Representatives late last year and would toughen enforcement against illegal aliens but would not allow for new guest workers. Differences between the House bill and the Senate version would have to be resolved later this year.

The Pew survey underscored the substantial presence of illegal workers in the US labour market. It estimated about 4.9 per cent of the US labour force, or 7.2m workers, was composed of unauthorised migrants.

Nearly a third of those work in service occupations, 19 per cent in construction and 15 per cent in production, installation and repair jobs. Illegal workers are especially prevalent in farming, where they make up nearly a quarter of all workers, as well as cleaning, residential home construction and food processing.

Despite beefing up border patrols and constructing fences along the southern US border with Mexico, the US has so far been unable to reverse the flow of illegal migrants there. The study found that the southern border remains the gateway to the US, with Mexican migrants making up 56 per cent of the unauthorised population, and another 22 per cent coming from the rest of Latin America, particularly Central American countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador.

The vast majority of those end up finding work in the US. Among adult males, 94 per cent of illegal immigrants participated in the US labour force, compared with an 83 per cent participation rate for native-born men.

The New York Times reports that with a tendency to stare zombie-like and run into stationary objects, a new species of impaired motorist is hitting the roads: the Ambien driver.

Ambien, the nation's best-selling prescription sleeping pill, is showing up with regularity as a factor in traffic arrests, sometimes involving drivers who later say they were sleep-driving and have no memory of taking the wheel after taking the drug.

In some state toxicology laboratories Ambien makes the top 10 list of drugs found in impaired drivers. Wisconsin officials identified Ambien in the bloodstreams of 187 arrested drivers from 1999 to 2004.

And as a more people are taking the drug — 26.5 million prescriptions in this country last year — there are signs that Ambien-related driving arrests are on the rise. In Washington State, for example, officials counted 78 impaired-driving arrests in which Ambien was a factor last year, up from 56 in 2004.

Ambien's maker, Sanofi-Aventis, says the drug's record after 13 years of use in this country shows it is safe when taken as directed. But a spokeswoman, Melissa Feltmann, wrote in an e-mail message, "We are aware of reports of people driving while sleepwalking, and those reports have been provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of our ongoing postmarketing evaluation about the safety of our products."

A spokeswoman for the F.D.A. said the drug's current label warnings, which say it should not be used with alcohol and in some cases could cause sleepwalking or hallucinations, were adequate. "People should be aware of that," said the spokeswoman, Susan Cruzan.

While alcohol and other drugs are sometimes also involved in the Ambien traffic cases, the drivers tend to stand out from other under-the-influence motorists. The behavior can include driving in the wrong direction or slamming into light poles or parked vehicles, as well as seeming oblivious to the arresting officers, according to a presentation last month at a meeting of forensic scientists.

"These cases are just extremely bizarre, with extreme impairment," said Laura J. Liddicoat, the forensic toxicology supervisor at a state-run lab in Wisconsin who made the presentation.

Her presentation, which reported on six of the cases, was made at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, where her counterparts from other parts of the country swapped similar tales.

Several of Ms. Liddicoat's cases involved drivers whose blood revealed evidence of Ambien overdoses. In one of them the driver, who was also taking the antidepressant citalopram, crashed into a parked car, was involved in another near collision, then drove over a curb. When confronted by police, he did not recall any of the recent events, according to the presentation.

Ms. Liddicoat did not describe any of those cases as sleep-driving — in fact, she said she had not heard of that defense — and it is possible that some drivers' claims of driving while asleep may be mere Ambien alibis. But some medical researchers say reports of sleep-driving are plausible.

Doctors affiliated with the University of Minnesota Medical Center who have studied Ambien recently reported the cases of two users who told doctors they sleep-drove to the supermarket while under the drug's influence. Neither of the patients remembered the episode the next day, according to Dr. Carlos Schenck, an expert in sleep disorders who is the lead researcher in the study.

"Luckily, neither of them got hurt," said Dr. Schenck, who added that sleep-driving — which really occurs in a twilight state between sleep and wakefulness — was more common than people generally suspect. He said he believed that Ambien was an excellent sleep agent, but that patients need to be better warned about its potential side effects.

The traffic cases around the country include that of Dwayne Cribb, a longtime probation and parole officer in Rock Hill, S.C. Mr. Cribb says he remembers nothing after taking Ambien before bed last Halloween — until he awoke in jail to learn he had left his bed and gone for a drive, smashed into a parked van and driven away before crashing into a tree. Mr. Cribb is still facing charges of leaving the scene of an accident.

A registered nurse who lives outside Denver took Ambien before going to sleep one night in January 2003. Sometime later — she says she remembers none of the episode — she got into her car wearing only a thin nightshirt in 20-degree weather, had a fender bender, urinated in the middle of an intersection, then became violent with police officers, according to her lawyer.

The woman, whose lawyer says she previously had a pristine traffic record, eventually pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of careless driving after the prosecutors partly accepted her version of events, said the lawyer, Lloyd L. Boyer.

Many states do not currently test for Ambien when making impaired- driving arrests. But a survey still under way by a committee from the forensic sciences group and the Society of Forensic Toxicologists found that among laboratories that conduct tests of drivers' blood samples for two dozen states, 10 labs list Ambien among the top 10 drugs found in impaired drivers, according to Dr. Sarah Kerrigan, a forensic toxicologist in Houston involved in that survey.

Ms. Liddicoat, in Wisconsin, is among experts who suggest that Ambien may need a stronger warning label. Others arguing that case include doctors, Ambien users and defense lawyers.

"Doctors are handing out these drugs like Pez," said William C. Head, an Atlanta lawyer who is one of the nation's leading defense lawyers specializing in impaired-driving cases.

The F.D.A., which would have to order any labeling changes, says it is not aware of any pattern of problems with the drug. Still Ms. Cruzan, in response to a reporter's question, said the agency would look into unusual sleepwalking episodes.

Including the notifications from Sanofi, which as a matter of policy the F.D.A. declined to discuss, the agency did receive 48 "adverse event" reports in 2004 involving Ambien use without other drugs. They involved three cases of sleepwalking, six reports of hallucinations and one traffic accident.

Ambien's competitors — Lunesta by Sepracor and Sonata by King Pharmaceuticals — are not as widely used in this country, and do not seem to be cropping up with any frequency on police blotters. Ambien sales last year reached $2.2 billion, according to IMS Health. Among the three drugs, Ambien accounted for 84 percent of prescriptions dispensed.

A federal prosecutor was persuaded that Ambien played a part in a well-publicized case last summer involving not a car but an airliner. A US Airways flight from Charlotte, N.C., to London last July was diverted to Boston, after a passenger who had taken Ambien became "like the Incredible Hulk all of a sudden," according to his lawyer.

The man, Sean Joyce, a British painting contractor, became agitated, tore off his shirt and threatened to kill himself and fellow passengers, according to court documents. If convicted, Mr. Joyce could have faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail for interfering with a flight crew, according to his lawyer, Michael C. Andrews.

But under a plea agreement Mr. Joyce was sentenced to five days already served, after the prosecutor accepted his story that his eruption, which he said he could not recall at all, occurred as a result of taking one Ambien pill and drinking two individual-serving bottles of wine.

Many of the impaired-driving cases involve people who drank alcohol before taking Ambien. Mr. Cribb, for instance, said he had two beers with dinner before he took the drug and went to bed.

Sanofi-Aventis says that while sleepwalking may occur while taking Ambien, the drug may not be the cause. It also notes that the warnings with Ambien, including those in its television ads, specifically instruct patients not to use it with alcohol and to take it right before bed.

Alcohol has sometimes been shown to cause sleepwalking, and it can also magnify Ambien's effects, according to Dr. Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center, who is also involved in Dr. Schenck's study.

In the past, the center has received grant funding from Sepracor, Lunesta's maker, but Dr. Mahowald said that none of the researchers currently received any funding from sleeping pill companies.

Ambien's alcohol warning is apparently ignored by many people. But Mr. Head, the defense lawyer, says he has concluded that no one should take Ambien the same evening they have been drinking alcohol. "Not even a toast," he said.

Mr. Head is now defending a man in Decatur, Ga., who, after having three drinks one night, said he took two Ambien and was in bed watching David Letterman's monologue on television. Without realizing it, the man says, he got back out of bed and behind the wheel and was arrested on multiple charges that included driving on the wrong side of the road.

Too many other people taking Ambien also evidently disregard the other label guidelines.

Ann Marie Gordon, manager of Washington State's toxicology lab, said that many of those arrested reported that they took Ambien while driving so it would "kick in" by the time they got home. "Hello — it kicked in before you got home?" Ms. Gordon said. "That's not a good thing. I'm amazed at the number of people who do that."

But misuse of the drug may not explain all the cases. The nurse near Denver took a single Ambien and went to bed, according to her lawyer, Mr. Boyer of Englewood, Colo. Mr. Boyer said that only when the woman returned home after her arrest did she discover a partly consumed bottle of wine on her counter — unopened when she went to bed, she said — leading her to suspect she had begun drinking after taking Ambien.

Research by Dr. Schenck and others elsewhere have found evidence that Ambien users engaged, unawares, in various middle-of-the-night behaviors. In a study published in 2001, researchers at the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center reported on five cases of unusual nighttime eating, sometimes while sleepwalking, in patients taking Ambien. The chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation for the VA North Texas Health System in Dallas, Dr. Weibin Yang, said he became aware of Ambien's potential side effects while at another hospital treating a 55-year-old patient after hip surgery.

The man, who had no history of sleepwalking, walked into a hospital corridor one night, where he urinated on the floor. On another night, he got out of bed and told nurses he was going to church. Dr. Yang said the patient was also taking other medications, but the sleepwalking stopped when Ambien was discontinued. The patient, he said, had no recollection of either event.

Dr. Yang said such experiences persuaded him that people could drive, without realizing it, after taking Ambien.

Meanwhile in South Carolina, Mr. Cribb, who has already pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, still faces a charge of leaving the scene of an accident. He says he has sworn off Ambien. "There has to be a stronger warning," he said, "about what this drug does to you."

The NYT also reports that Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, has agreed to sell his memoir for an advance of more than $8.5 million, according to people involved in the negotiations, making a deal that appears to give him the second-largest advance ever paid for a nonfiction book.

The book is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2007 by Penguin Press, an imprint of the Penguin Group USA, which is part of Pearson. Ann Godoff, the president and publisher of Penguin Press, said yesterday that the book would present Mr. Greenspan's view of the world during his tumultuous 18-year tenure at the Federal Reserve and his vision for the future.

Mr. Greenspan, who turned 80 this week, served as Fed chairman from shortly before the October 1987 stock market crash through the end of January. He said yesterday that he had already begun work on the book, which he expects to finish by the end of the year.

"Until the book is significantly complete, I do not plan to engage in significant consulting," he said. "I plan to speak periodically until the book is much closer to completion." Though a ghostwriter will collaborate with him, Mr. Greenspan said, "I plan to do the first draft and the last draft."

Given that Mr. Greenspan's notoriously opaque statements as Federal Reserve chairman sometimes confused even the closest observers of monetary policy, it remains to be seen whether he can write a book that appeals to a large general-interest audience.

He will need to do so, however, to justify the advance that Penguin offered, outbidding several other large publishers, including HarperCollins and Random House. Assuming a cover price of about $30, the publisher — which receives about half the price of each book sold — would have to sell nearly 600,000 copies of the book to recover the cost of the advance, and Mr. Greenspan would not receive any additional royalties until the book sells nearly 1.9 million copies.

Penguin bought the world rights to the book, meaning that it could recoup some of its costs by selling the right to publish translated editions of the book in foreign countries.

Ms. Godoff said she was confident that Mr. Greenspan's book would appeal to an audience far beyond those in the financial world.

"I think his life and his career are different from any business luminary you can mention," Ms. Godoff said. "His experience over the last 50 years in international relations, his knowledge of the way the world works in general, and his relationships with everybody important in the world cannot be matched by anyone."

Mr. Greenspan's advance ranks second only to the more than $10 million paid to former President Bill Clinton for his memoir, "My Life," which was published in June 2004. Pope John Paul II received an advance of $8.5 million in 1994 for his book, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton received an $8 million advance for her memoir, "Living History," published in 2003.

The New York Post disclosed the Greenspan book deal on Tuesday.

Ms. Godoff and Mr. Greenspan declined to comment on the amount of his advance. Her three-year-old imprint has published such recent nonfiction best sellers as "Ghost Soldiers" by Steve Coll, which won the Pulitzer prize for general nonfiction last year; "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow and "The City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt.

In her long publishing career, Ms. Godoff has won a reputation for paying steep advances to authors and thereby making risky bets that only sometimes paid off. In January 2003, she was fired as the president of the Random House Trade Group, for failing to meet profit targets.

Robert B. Barnett, the lawyer who represented Mr. Greenspan in the book negotiations, also declined to comment on the amount of the advance. He said Mr. Greenspan was talking with several potential ghostwriters but had not settled on one yet.

The leading candidate for that position, David Wessel, the deputy Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, said last month that he had talked with Mr. Greenspan about helping him with the book. "While this has been under discussion," Mr. Wessel said, "I've recused myself from editing stories about Greenspan in The Journal."

Mr. Greenspan, in the 10-page proposal for the book that his representatives circulated among publishing houses, said that he would write about the presidents and other politicians he has dealt with and would discuss a range of issues, from China's effect on the global economy to how 9/11 affected his understanding of economic trends.

"I do not intend to dwell on personality aberrations, except as they affect policy decision-making — which, of course, always involves personalities," he wrote, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by DealBook, a Web log published by nytimes.com. "I will also describe what it's like to be a prop at a Congressional hearing, which is too often the role of witnesses."

Mr. Barnett said that readers would be surprised at how approachable Mr. Greenspan is in the book. "The person that we watched testifying and speaking 'Fed-speak' is not Alan Greenspan," Mr. Barnett said. "Alan Greenspan is articulate, insightful and also funny. The proposal that he circulated reflected that, and the publishers he met with saw that. This book will be a highly readable piece of work."

Susan Petersen Kennedy, the president of the Penguin Group USA, echoed that sentiment. "What I'm looking for here," she said, "is a book that will sell for the next 40 years."