Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Sticking to a Mediterranean diet could be the key to a longer life, according to a major new study.

GOATS, the first hoofed animals to be domesticated, are remarkable creatures. 

Nuala Casey

A smartphone tilted at 45 degrees above your eyeline is the most forgiving angle, against the flattering beam of a backlit window or a supernova of flash reflected in a bathroom mirror, as you prepare for a night out.

The removal of Mohamed Morsi could split Egyptian Islamist groups, and convince extremists that the democratic route doesn’t work, writes Alexander Dziadosz

Unborn babies “practise” facial expressions of pain while they are in the womb, scientists say.

A top British university has been criticised for spending £1.4m (€1.65m) on art including works by Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol while it charges students £9,000-a-year (€10.600) and pays hundreds of staff less than the Living Wage.

Selma Dabbagh

Police have recovered Chinese treasures worth more than £2 million (€2.42m) that were stolen in a well-planned heist earlier this month.

Police in the UK have released photographs of two men wanted in connection with a well-planned raid on a museum in which treasures worth more than £2m (€2.4m) were stolen.

British scientists are hoping that a new £1.9m (€2.14m) supercomputer will help them unlock the secrets of the universe.

Oscar-winner Russell Crowe flew thousands of miles to give his first acting class to a group of students in England today.

THE skulls of tens of thousands of Irish butchered in 16th and 17th-century battles were exported to Britain where they were ground up and consumed by the English aristocracy, including monarchs, in the belief they could cure illnesses and heal wounds.

SIR Humphrey Gilbert was the Pol Pot of his generation when it came to amassing Irish skulls, many of which ended up being used as medicine by the English aristocracy.

Hormone therapy can make the brain “younger” – and could protect against strokes, scientists said today.

AN unemployed antiques dealer with a taste for the high life was jailed for eight years after he was convicted of handling a stolen copy of a rare first collection of Shakespeare’s plays.

An unemployed antiques dealer with a taste for the high life was jailed today for eight years after he was convicted of handling a stolen copy of a rare first collection of Shakespeare’s plays.

A BRITISH man was facing jail yesterday after being found guilty of handling stolen goods following the disappearance of a rare William Shakespeare manuscript dating from 1623.

THOUSANDS of people who are partially sighted following stroke or brain injury could gain greater independence from a simple, cheap and accessible training course which could eventually be delivered from their mobile phones or hand-held games consoles, it was revealed yesterday.

Italy’s civil aviation agency has fined Ryanair €3m for failing to help passengers stranded last month when flights were cancelled due to Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud.

Irish airspace is facing massive disruption for a week as weather conditions are set to continue pushing the volcanic ash cloud across the country, it emerged today.

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern earned an estimated €145,000 from speaking engagements last year, travelling to New York, Honduras, Nigeria and Madrid where he delivered lectures for fees of €29,000.

Dubai was waiting today to see whether neighbouring Abu Dhabi would bail out the credit-crunched city-state.

ONE in five schoolchildren in northern Afghanistan is likely to suffer from a psychiatric disorder, according to the first large-scale survey of children’s mental health in the country.

JUST like their senior counterparts, ‘Grand Slam’ is not a term being used loosely around Allen Clarke’s Ireland U-20 camp.

Soldiers blew up wooden houses and other debris today in a lake formed by China’s deadly earthquake to speed the flow of water into a diversion channel and ease the threat of flooding for more than 1 million people in the sprawling disaster zone.

THE success of football teams wearing red shirts — such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest — is no coincidence, according to academics.

MOTHERS who cradle their babies to the right hand side are displaying signs of extreme stress, new research suggests.

Jo Pavey endured a few difficult moments before winning yesterday’s SPAR European Cross Country trial in Liverpool.

JULIA McFARLANE’S QC told the Law Lords earlier this year that she was entitled to £250,000 (€366,000) a year for life because she had put the “spadework” into her 16-year marriage to her husband Kenneth.

THE dangers of buying drugs over the internet are only too real for the family of student Liam Brackell.

A new report appears to contradict evidence that bottle feeding and breast feeding makes no difference in the occurrence of cot deaths when the baby sleeps in the mother's bed.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s attempt to indict Iraq over weapons of mass destruction and links to the terrorist group al-Qaida will comfort the converted, but may not persuade doubters that Washington has a cast-iron case for war.

A British teenager today told how she was struck by a possible meteorite as she was waiting outside her family home.

Big Brother housemate Tim is hiding a hair-raising secret - the former public schoolboy shaves his chest.

Two Big Brother housemates were being nominated for eviction today - although new contestant Tim Culley will enjoy a stay of execution.

The West’s growing dependency on ‘‘fast food culture’’ will lead to increasing calls for a swift resolution to the Afghanistan conflict, an academic said today.