The Government will today announce initiatives to build and buy thousands of houses and units in a short space of time to tackle homelessness and social housing waiting lists.

IN a housing crisis, what people really need is a roof over their heads.

Business conducted by Irish travel agents is worth €1.5bn annually to the economy, according to Tourism Minister Paschal Donohoe.

Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill, delivers here weekly briefing on Euro affairs from the European Parliament.

A case in which the new Child and Family Agency is seeking to keep a 10-weeks premature boy from the care of his parents has heard contested claims his mother smoked up to 80 cigarettes a day while pregnant.

Germany’s top security official said yesterday he will try to find a way for Edward Snowden to speak to German officials if the former National Security Agency contractor is willing to provide details about the NSA’s activities including alleged surveillance of chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone.

Plans to establish a new central equine database have been speeded up, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine revealed today.

In relation to the letter from Jim O’Sullivan, Sligo (Jul 24), I wish to point out that the Respond Housing Association is a registered charity and not-for-profit organisation.

Hot on the heels of the “Mortgage to Rent” scheme, that benefits mainly private housing associations and the banks, comes another outrageous case of taxpayers’ money being used to further enrich these associations — and many would argue to the detriment of our community as a whole.

The National Consumer Agency has begun legal proceedings against the publishers of the Irish Mail on Sunday.

Sustained on subsistence payments while barred from working, many asylum seekers have spent years in legal and economic limbo. Scott Millar reports.

The Dáil and Seanad have both passed the National Assets Management Agency legislation.

Israel gave a guarded welcome to a ceasefire proposal for Gaza today raising hopes its bloody 12-day offensive could be winding down.

Australia and New Zealand appealed to Japan today to halt a fleet headed for the Antarctic to hunt humpback whales.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre have cancelled the tsunami warning for Indonesia after a powerful earthquake hit the country causing buildings to sway in the capital, Jakarta.

A top power company official defended safety standards at an earthquake-ravaged nuclear plant in Japan today, even as the government pressed for more details about radioactive leaks.

Public trust in the British government has been weakened by Northern Ireland Security Minister Shaun Woodward distancing the IRA from organised crime, it was claimed today.

THE new get-tough National Consumer Agency may not be up and running for another 12 months, the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment confirmed yesterday.

BABIES and children are 25 times more exposed to the dangers of dioxins emitted by toxic waste incinerators than adults, a paediatrician warned yesterday.

A powerful earthquake rocked north-eastern Japan today, starting fires and landslides and making buildings sway hundreds of miles away in the capital Tokyo.

Paul C Warnke, an early disarmament proponent who served as a key arms control negotiator and defence adviser for three Democratic presidents, died yesterday. He was 81.