The Obama administration has defended its decision to force out a black Agriculture Department employee over racially-tinged remarks at a banquet, despite evidence that they were misconstrued.

A ship which arrived in the US territory of Guam was turned away by authorities after thousands of spiders poured out of its cargo.

IRELAND will publish the list of beneficiaries of EU Common Agricultural Policy payments this week.

A REPORT issued recently by Environment Minister John Gormley revealed shocking news about the state of our wildlife and their habitats, with some species being described as being on the brink of extinction, while the status of others is “poor”, including Ireland’s hares and otters.

EU agriculture ministers must vote within three months on whether to allow imports of Herculex RW, a genetically modified strain of maize.

Officials from the Department of Agriculture met this morning to review the latest outbreak of bird flu in the UK.

MEMBERS of the European Parliament are to visit a farm in Kilkenny where cattle are getting mysterious illnesses and trees are dying.

A new case of the deadly “swamp fever” virus detected in a horse in the east of Ireland has brought the number of cases discovered to 21, it was confirmed today.

INACCURATE or misleading information in Farm Waste Management grant applications will lead to forfeiture of entitlement to any grant aid for work carried out, warned Eddie O’Doherty, Department of Agriculture, at a Limerick IFA information meeting on the scheme.

The Government could face compensation claims from the poultry industry if the bird flu damages business here, Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan said today.

Farmers must become guardians of the countryside to ensure that endangered flora and fauna and national monuments survive, it was claimed today.

Over 5,600 bird owners have registered under the Agriculture Department’s registration scheme to combat the threat of bird flu, it emerged today.

International governments need to give emergency aid to southern Africa which is facing the biggest famine in the world, it was claimed today.

Ten percent of Ireland is now covered in forest according to estimates by the Department of Agriculture.

More than 19 months after a mad cow scare closed US borders to Canadian cattle, the United States said it would allow imports beginning in March.

Japanese and US officials today focused on how stringently producers should test their cattle for mad cow disease in talks aimed at lifting Japan’s 10-month-old ban on American beef imports.

THREE American soldiers and over 40 fighters loyal to a radical cleric were killed in another day of widespread bloodshed in Iraq yesterday.

Investigators tentatively traced the first US case of “mad cow disease” to Canada, which could help determine the scope of the outbreak and might even limit the economic damage to the country’s beef industry.

Thousands of poisoned birds have dropped dead in an Illinois town.

Farmers in the US are being offered insurance policies to cover income lost should foot-and-mouth disease ever reach America.

The US is bracing itself for an outbreak of foot-and-mouth.