Some 40% of the students have only completed five-six weeks training (compared to the standard 32 weeks).

More than 220 people have died in two separate floods in China.

There has been an alarming rise in recent drug use in Cork and Kerry, new figures show.

Island communities on the Western and North Western coasts are being left in limbo by the withdrawal of search and rescue facilities from the Air Corps, Fine Gael's Defence Spokesman Dinny McGinley TD said today.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin is considering abolishing half the country’s health boards to improve efficiency and reduce the 70% of his department’s budget that now goes on staff salaries.