BEST BACKPACKS: The back to school range at Little Ones in Ennis includes beautifully illustrated backpacks and lunchbags from Crocodile Creek. 

Department store Brown Thomas opens its first dog rooms today in its Dublin store.

The news that US detectives were investigating a modern-day body-snatching ring was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine.

The man accused of scheming to plunder bodies for parts used in thousands of tissue transplants in the US and Canada is poised to plead guilty.

The scope of a US scandal involving body parts plundered from corpses has begun to emerge amid a flood of legal action, with one company alone saying it has distributed thousands of pieces of human tissue that authorities fear could be tainted with disease.

A new report out this evening is contradicting efforts by the Blood Transfusion Service and the Department of Health to centralise blood testing in Dublin.

A number of students from Trinity College in Dublin are expected to mount a protest today over the Blood Transfusion Service’s refusal to accept blood donations from homosexuals.

The Lindsay Tribunal, which is investigating the infection of Irish haemophiliacs with contaminated blood products supplied by the State, is expected to finish its work this afternoon.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has denied that haemophiliacs suffered unnecessarily because of financial considerations during the economic recession in the 1980s.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has denied that it engaged in a cover-up with the Department of Health to ensure that the truth about the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and Hepatitis C was never revealed.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has described the infection of Irish haemophiliacs with HIV and Hepatitis C as "the greatest tragedy of its kind ever to take place in Ireland".

The Irish Haemophiliac Society has slammed the conduct of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service in its closing submission to the Lindsay Tribunal.

Lawyers for the Lindsay Tribunal have failed to apportion blame in their closing statement to the inquiry today.

A new policy stopping people who lived in the UK for five or more years from donating blood in Ireland comes into effect today.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has confirmed that it is planning to hold a clinic in Government Buildings on April 12th.