A DARK shadow hangs over the reputations of some of Ireland’s greatest athletes and nothing, it seems, can ever remove it.

MARTIN FAGAN has been banned for two years by the Irish SportAnti-Doping Disciplinary Panel for using EPO.

IRISH food interest groups have voiced their opposition to the European Patent Office’s (EPO) decision to grant food corporation Monsanto a patent on melon seeds which it has genetically modified.

THE Irish Sports Council’s anti-doping programme manager, Dr Una May, has warned drugs cheats will be hunted down and punished through more sophisticated testing and profiling technology.

Mark Cavendish lifted some of the gloom surrounding the Tour de France by becoming the first Briton to secure a hat-trick of stage victories in the Tour de France.

IF Cathal Lombard qualifies for the Olympic Games in Beijing then the Olympic Council of Ireland will give consideration his participation.

Drug firm AstraZeneca saw almost €3bn wiped off its value today after it lost a key patent on best-selling heartburn treatment Nexium.

THE Government’s handling of the Bord na gCon affair has degenerated into total farce, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said yesterday.

THE report into the controversial sacking of the Bord na gCon chief executive will be discussed by the Cabinet today, the Irish Examiner understands.

WE wish to express our deep disgust at the way that the Irish Examiner has dealt with (and, arguably, created much of) the controversy surrounding the greyhound racing industry since the dismissal of the Irish Greyhound Board chief, Aidan Tynan, on January 26.

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche last night challenged Roadstone’s assertion that it never knew more than 50,000 tonnes of illegal and partially hazardous waste had been dumped on its land in Wicklow.

THE under-fire chairman of Bord na gCon Paschal Taggart openly accepted this weekend that two positive EPO doping findings were not publicised partly because one case involved the top greyhound trainer in the country.

The Chairman of Bord na gCon is standing over his statement that the sacking of Chief Executive Aidan Tynan is not linked to the greyhound doping controversy.

PASCHAL Taggart, the embattled chairman of Bord na gCon, should resign.

EMBATTLED Irish Greyhound Board chairman Paschal Taggart refused to step aside yesterday over his role in the doped greyhounds scandal, despite calls to do so from the opposition.

THE Irish Greyhound Board's annual doping report reveals 6,113 samples were taken from greyhounds during 2005 - with 69 testing positive for banned substances.

THE sacked chief executive of the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) has alleged, in a letter to Sports Minister John O’Donoghue, that the board’s chairman suppressed two positive cases of EPO doping tests on greyhounds.

Sports Minister John O’Donoghue tonight demanded an urgent report from Bord na gCon into the sacking of its chief executive amid a row over the doping of greyhounds.

LANCE ARMSTRONG is locked in a war of words with the director of the Tour de France as he continues to fight claims he used blood-boosting drugs in 1999.

THE FA announced yesterday they will introduce a test for the banned drug erythropoietin (EPO) “in the near future”.

Irish athlete Cathal Lombard is due to meet officials from Athletics Ireland today to formally respond to his positive drug test.

DISGRACED British cyclist David Millar has admitted using EPO in the build-up to his victory in the World Championships last year. He won the world title in the time-trial with a near-faultless display in Hamilton, Canada.

PAT McQUAID, now one of the most powerful cycling administrators in the world, has come to the defence of Stephen Roche in what he has described as an attempt to besmirch the Tour de France winner's character.

IT IS ironic that a word as cumbersome as tetrahydrogestrinone should be the name of a drug so easy to digest.

Fifa have warned four Greek clubs to pay debts to foreign clubs - or face heavy sanctions.

FIFA will test for the banned drug EPO at the World Cup as they intensify efforts to crack down on doping in football.

The International Olympic Committee are to stick with a combined blood and urine EPO test at the Winter Olympics instead of using a French method requiring only urine.