The scale of Australia’s fires is biblical. They are beyond anything experienced, or at least widely highlighted, in modern times.

Harrington's return is a significant boost for Irish boxing ahead of the European qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 next March.

If the robin is the ‘Christmas bird’, then the snow bunting is the ‘white-Christmas’ one; its arrival here each winter is as irregular and unpredictable as snow during the festive season.

On Monday, RTÉ gave a powerful example of a core obligation of public service broadcasting — tell the truth, even if the sky should fall in.

Conor Harte says elements are combining perfectly to rekindle the “no excuses” mantra in the Irish men’s team just in time for this weekend’s Olympic qualifiers in Vancouver.

Christina Desmond and Amy Broadhurst have missed out on medals at the women's World Boxing Championships in Siberia.

Ireland’s winning streak at the World Women’s Elites ended on the wrong end of two split decisions in Ulan-Ude, Siberia yesterday.

Joe Ward earned a huge round of applause from fans at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday night after returning to the venue on crutches to thank them for their support.

There comes a time in August when you just know. The game is up. I mean, there might be another heatwave but it won’t be the same. The summer has lost its foothold.

Leafing through a tome for 3.5 hours a week can add almost two years to your life, researchers have found. Margaret Jennings talks to people aged over 50 about their reading habits Reading by the book to expand your lifespan.

It would be hard not to be moved by the devastation of members of all three families directly affected by the verdict in the case of the murder of Ana Kriegel, yet the prevailing sympathy must go first and foremost to the victim herself, and to her parents.

An emaciated polar bear has been sighted in a Russian industrial city in Siberia, far south of its normal hunting grounds.

The new chief executive of Irish exploration company PetroNeft Resources has said the company will likely be sold within the next two-to-three years.

Going through the village of Ballineen the other night, I was stopped by the guards.

Irish exploration company PetroNeft Resources is looking at all options - including the sale of its chief assets - in a bid to return value for its shareholders.

Only in the last few years have posters of missing young people been wrapped around lampposts in Ireland, accompanied by friends and family handing out leaflets in the street in the sadly wilted hope that some stranger will remember something.

Two members of the Irish Travelling community experienced the life of remote tribes in Siberia and the Amazon basin, writes Áilín Quinlan.

A United Nations-appointed expert on human rights has highlighted the need to change to renewable energy amid concerns that six billion people regularly inhale hair "so polluted that it puts their life, health and well-being at risk".

Bundee Aki says he can see a lot of similarities between this season and Connacht’s glorious march to silverware in 2016 as he prepares for his second Six Nations campaign.

At least two people have died and about 40 others were detained in what has been described as a crackdown on gay people in the Russian republic of Chechnya, LGBT activists said.

Business books of the year

Hector Ó hEochagáin gives us a unique insight into the incredible highs and bone-chilling lows of his latest travel adventure from Siberia to Saigon, airing on TG4 tonight.

British explorer Europa Oil and Gas has launched a farm-out process for three of its licences located off the west coast, comprising half of its Irish-based assets.

Irish oil and gas explorer PetroNeft Resources is considering selling one of its two Russian-based licensing blocks as it looks to firm up long-term financing.

The loss of inspirational skipper Rory Best for tomorrow afternoon’s PRO14 shoot-out against the Ospreys at the Kingspan Stadium (kick-off, 3.05pm) will hit Ulster hard, particularly with Ireland lock Iain Henderson also sidelined.

An Irishman is planning a 1,400km trek between two Siberian towns, both of which claim to be the coldest on Earth. Temperatures can drop to minus 60C.

In 1959, geneticist Dmitry Belyayev began catching silver foxes in Siberia. Keeping them in captivity, he selected the tamest ones and allowed them to breed.

The Beast from the East brought an unexpected gift; a brambling turned up in the mist net in my back-garden.

Fifty years ago today, 61 people were killed when an Aer Lingus plane crashed on a flight from Cork to London, and left many with questions on what caused the tragedy, writes Caroline O’Doherty.

According to the law of entropy, change occurs in only one direction, writes Richard Collins.

"We were in the middle of hair and make-up."

A word of advice for Irish Olympians competing in South Korea next month: the cold is back for the Winter Games.

Ger Kennedy is a world-renowned ice swimmer who swam his second Ice Zero Mile (in water below one degree) in Siberia last week. The Dubliner is also planning an Antarctica 2020 swimming expedition in honour of the Corkman who discovered the continent.

The Russian military has launched drills involving intercontinental ballistic missiles in Siberia.

A monument to Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the prolific assault rifle that bears his name, has been unveiled in Moscow.

Tommy Barker looks at a two-storey terraced home in Courtmacsherry

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pictured spearfishing in southern Siberia's mountains.

Observed mistily above the Sherkin hills from the Beacon at Baltimore, Cape Clear is an enticing island and by far the largest in Roaringwater Bay, writes Dan MacCarthy

The Earth is at serious risk of an asteroid strike, according to a leading Irish astrophysicist.

Security will be tight in the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey tomorrow night for the clash between the USA and Ireland but AJ MacGinty is no stranger to being escorted in and out of this fixture.

The editor of a local newspaper in Siberia has been shot dead, Russian investigators said.

People are surprised to learn that curlews are in trouble; the much-loved birds are seen and heard, particularly along the coast, in winter., writes Richard Collins