HSE director general Tony O’Brien has denied that the caregiver of ‘Grace’ was unfairly or disproportionately treated, despite underfunding her care to the tune of €600,000.

Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the legacy of his predecessor John Paul II, five years after his death, amid questions over the late pontiff's record in combating paedophile priests and whether a miracle needed for his sainthood really happened.

Former priest John Geoghan, a convicted child molester who became a central figure in the Catholic church’s sex abuse scandal in the United States, has been killed in prison, a Boston state spokesman said tonight.