A number of requests by mother and baby home survivors to have their evidence heard in public have been refused by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

Sounds detected by probes deep in the South Atlantic did not come from an Argentine submarine that has been lost for five days, the country's navy said, dashing newfound hope among relatives of the 44 sailors aboard.

Adopted people are being stigmatised in the same manner as their mothers were, decades before, with the Government’s proposed new information and tracing legislation.

Mother and baby home campaigners have said as many as 180 institutions that dealt with unmarried mothers and children need to be examined by the commission.

Adoption groups have called for “a full criminal investigation” into the alteration of files relating to vaccine trials at Bessborough Mother and Baby Home.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission has yet to decide whether to ask for an extension of its remit to examine other institutions.

Tens of thousands of adopted people were unable to complete the Census accurately as they have no legal right to their birth information.

Just before dawn on a Thursday in early March 2006, several hundred Gardaí and soldiers swarmed Thomas "Slab" Murphy's border farm.

Over 1,000 adopted people are languishing on waiting lists, seeking a service to help them discover their natural relatives.

There has been a mixed response to the Government’s planned legislation on adoption, information, and tracing.

Adoption campaigners are concerned that tens of thousands of unmarried women and girls whose children were forcibly or illegally adopted will be excluded from the upcoming mother and baby homes inquiry.

Adoption campaigners have again expressed concerns that tens of thousands of people could be excluded from the mother and baby home inquiry.

Adoption campaigners have warned Children’s Minister Dr James Reilly that all six of his predecessors have reneged on promises to give basic tracing rights to adopted people.

The Government was “conscious of the danger” of offering redress for Magdalene survivors just months before setting up the McAleese inquiry to investigate the issue.

Many adopted people believe that successive governments have refused to offer basic tracing and information rights until most victims of Ireland’s forced and illegal adoptions have died.

"In all of us, there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are and where we have come from.

A UN body said last year it was "surprised" that the issue of illegal adoptions and vaccine trials in mother and baby homes had not been dealt with.

Four social justice organisations are now calling for the inquiry into mother-and-baby homes to be widened to include Magdalene laundries and county homes.

Former children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald has admitted she read a dossier in 2011 calling for an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes, vaccine trials and illegal adoptions.

No full-scale audit has ever been carried out into tens of thousands of files given to the State by the religious orders which ran Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes.

Adopted people have hit out at claims by Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald that every adoption carried out by the State was done in line with the law.

An exploration company backed by the 20-year-old son of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has agreed a $180m deal to buy a gas and oil field in Russia.

The Adoption Rights Alliance is considering going to the United Nations in order to force the State to grant adopted people the same rights as every other Irish citizen.

I once heard one of Chile’s most illustrious winemakers, Aurelio Montes, affectionately refer to the pinot noir grape as being like his teenage offspring: full of potential for a great future — but a royal pain to deal with right now.

Retrospective information and tracing rights are to be offered in the upcoming Adoption Bill, in a significant U-turn by Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald.

The family of a murdered drug dealer has agreed to pay back £750,000 (€1m) of his ill-gotten gains, it was revealed today.

An alleged drug trafficker’s property empire and luxury cars worth nearly £3m (€4.3m) have been frozen by crimefighters in Belfast, it was revealed tonight.

The North’s top crime buster is expected to quit, it was revealed tonight.

Crimefighters have frozen homes, businesses and boats in a Co Down coast village as part of a crackdown on a fish quota scam, they revealed today.

A man alleged to have laundered money earned through suspected fuel smuggling has had assets of more than £400,000 (€589,000) frozen by the Assets Recovery Agency, it was announced today.

A policewoman is at the centre of a £750,000 (€1.1bn) Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) investigation in the North, it was revealed tonight.

Horses and a petrol station lease have been seized in a new crackdown on alleged fuel smugglers in the North, it was revealed today.

Alan McQuillan was appointed as boss of the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) today in succession to current director Jane Earl.

THE agency set up in Britain to confiscate criminals’ cash and luxury assets was condemned as a ‘mess’ yesterday.

Crimefighters in the North have seized control of a jailed thief's house, car and luxury watches, they revealed today.

THE Assets Recovery Agency investigating IRA money laundering yesterday froze assets worth £11.8 million (€17.9m) in Manchester, but representatives of the men involved said they were optimistic of successfully fighting the decision in the courts.

The North's Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) has made moves to seize almost £12m (€18.3m) worth of property in Manchester as part of a crackdown on alleged IRA money-laundering.

The British government is to abolish the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) set up to target and seize the assets of criminals in the North.

A businessman is to hand over assets worth €26.7m to authorities in the United Kingdom and Ireland after a long-running fraud probe, it was revealed tonight.

A convicted armed robber today had over £100,000 (€144,100) assets seized by the UK's Assets Recovery Agency after the first court case of its kind in Northern Ireland.

The authorities in the North have seized around £750,000 (€1m) worth of assets from a second-hand car dealer suspected of fraud and tax evasion.

The Assets Recovery Agency in the North has defended itself amid criticism of the amount of money it costs the run the body.

The ex-wife of a murdered loyalist paramilitary leader has sold her home in the North in order to pay £35,000 (€51,000) to the Assets Recovery Agency, it announced today.

THE home of top republican Thomas “Slab” Murphy was searched yesterday as part of a massive security operation to smash a multi-million euro smuggling racket on both sides of the Border.