Susan O’Shea discovers that facial yoga isn’t an anti-ageing miracle — but that it does have its benefits.

It was a noise unlike anything I had heard before — a cacophonous racket of cheers, screams and thuds all blended together in a two-minute symphony. It built and built to one euphoric eruption, and once it happened all you could do was stand there in awe, aware once again that for all its flaws, there is nothing quite so invigorating as sport.

To have come home for these spring days is as great a joy for us, writes Damien Enright

ETHIOPIA will forever leave images of solitary walkers in my mind’s eye, lone men and women walking beside country roads or on paths across endless plains, miles from villages or any habitation, writes Damien Enright.

Damien Enright recounts more tales from his travels in Ethiopia. 

Damien Enright is heading off to roam the highlands and lowlands of Ethopia but not before he leaves you with some springtime inspiration.

There’s a reason Cork is the country’s winningest sporting county. Superior genes? Unlikely. Superior belief?

The International Criminal Court embodied the hope of bringing warlords and demagogues to

In recent times Kenyan distance runners have become regular visitors to Ireland where they run for local clubs and hoover up prizes on the road racing scene before returning to the Rift Valley.

"There was tremendous pressure. The country, family, Rudisha’s community, even the world of athletics. Would people have been satisfied with a silver and a bronze?

The last time most of us saw or heard of David Rudisha and Brother Colm O’Connell, the young Kenyan was stunning the world at the London Games and the Irish missionary was looking on back in Kenya, oblivious to the plaudits being showered his way.

He arrived in East Africa in 1976 with scant interest in athletics, but 36 years later, this Corkman, a Christian Brother teacher, is considered the foremost athletics coach in Kenya, and one of the most regarded in the world.

BEFORE I landed in Maputo, the images of Mozambique I’d been toying with were predictable.

KENYAN Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru died in a fall from a balcony after a domestic dispute involving his wife and another woman, police said.

Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru died in a fall from a balcony after a domestic dispute involving his wife and another woman, police said today.

SIX Kenyan leaders were yesterday accused of being behind organised violence following the country’s 2007 election that left more than 1,000 people dead.

Six Kenyan leaders were today accused of being behind organised violence following the country's 2007 election that left more than 1,000 people dead.

LEADING sports injury therapist Gerard Hartmann will open a new clinic at one of the most famous high altitude training camps in Kenya next week.

Michael Palin’s next travel series will be from Brazil, it was revealed today.

A KENYAN judge yesterday jailed the grandson of an English baron for eight months for killing a black man on his vast estate, a significantly lower penalty than the maximum he faced of life in prison.

A Kenyan judge today jailed the grandson of an English baron for eight months for killing a black man on his vast estate, a significantly lower penalty than the maximum he faced of life in prison.

A descendant of Kenya’s most famous white settlers was convicted of manslaughter today for shooting a black poacher on his vast estate.

TO SCHOOL through the fields took on a new meaning when Irish donors opened a secondary school in rural Ethiopia yesterday.

Thousands of people living in a makeshift camp in Kenya were today told that Ireland and the international community would do all in its power to help them return to their farms and homes.

KENYA’S rival factions yesterday began tackling the thorniest issues in negotiations to end the bloodshed sparked by disputed elections that have claimed more than 1,000 lives.

A Kenyan policeman was lynched by a mob of demonstrators today in revenge for the shooting of an MP by another officer.

An opposition MP has been shot dead by a policeman in Kenya’s Rift Valley today, the second to be killed this week as the country’s violent slide into chaos continues.

THE top US envoy to Africa called the violence in Kenya “ethnic cleansing” and said yesterday Washington was reviewing its hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the country.

Ethnic bloodbath leaves thousands stranded, Juno McEnroe reports from the Rift Valley, Kenya.

Violent anti-government protests in Kenya’s Rift Valley are aimed at the ethnic cleansing of the Kikuyu tribe there, a diplomat claimed today.

The violence and unrest sweeping Kenya is in danger of turning into a long-term problem, UN humanitarian aid chief John Holmes warned today.

Rival tribes wielding machetes, clubs and rocks clashed in Kenya’s resort town of Naivasha today, as the death toll from a month of ethnic violence topped the 800 mark.

Ethnic clashes convulsed western Kenya today as gangs fought with crude weapons and set homes ablaze, pushing the death toll from a month of violence over the country’s flawed presidential election to nearly 800.

Sporadic gunshots rang out today in a main Rift Valley city as Kenyans forced from their homes by post-election ethnic violence threatened to seek revenge.

Tribal violence flared again in Kenya today with mobs burning down half a town, killing at least two people.

Kenya’s president and his main opposition leader finally met today for the first time since their dispute over elections sparked nationwide violence that has left hundreds dead.

Kenya’s opposition party was today accused of organising some of the worst violence in the wave of killings that have swept the county.

Kenya’s government today condemned an opposition plan to boycott companies linked to President Mwai Kibaki’s allies as “sabotage”.

At least three people have been hacked to death with machetes in a Nairobi slum in renewed ethnic fighting over Kenya’s disputed election, residents said.

Fierce fighting over land killed 22 people and left 200 homes burned in Kenya's troubled western Rift Valley, officials said today, yet another eruption of ethnic clashes following the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki.

Kenya's opposition party called for another day of "peaceful rallies" across Kenya in defiance of a ban and despite 20 deaths in this week's demonstrations.

A PROMINENT US- based human rights group has called for Kenya to lift a ban on opposition rallies, as the nation braced for three days of protests over disputed elections.

Kenya’s president is ready to form “a government of national unity” to help resolve disputed elections that caused deadly riots, a government statement said today.

The leading US diplomat for Africa is in Kenya today to encourage a peaceful resolution after a disputed presidential election sparked days of deadly riots.

The head of the African Union travelled to Kenya today for crisis talks hoping to end the election rioting that has killed more than 275 people.

A mob torched a church where hundreds had sought refuge, and witnesses said dozens of people – including children – were burned alive or hacked to death with machetes in ethnic violence that followed Kenya’s disputed election.

A mob torched a church sheltering hundreds of people fleeing post-election violence in Kenya today, killing up to 50 people, including many children, as four days of rioting and ethnic clashes marked one of the darkest times in the country’s history.

Kenya’s president threatened a tough crackdown as rioters rampaged for a third day to protest what they called his sham re-election.

I WAS visiting a friend the other day and he mentioned that he had a well-preserved rath on his farm and invited me to come and look at it.

A descendant of Kenya’s most famous white settlers today went on trial for murder in the shooting dead of a black man on his vast estate, a case that has stirred simmering racial tensions in the east African nation.