Irish insurer FBD is eyeing a return to underwriting profits in the final months of the year as premiums continue to increase for policyholders.

The country’s only indigenous insurer FBD has warned of further premium rises across its business this year after an “exceptionally difficult” 2015 saw it record an €85m pre-tax loss.

Irish insurers will have to set aside significantly more reserves to cover car crash, workplace injuries and other claims as compensation payouts surge, according to the industry’s regulator.

FBD, the troubled insurance group, said yesterday it had struck an agreement for an injection of €70m by Fairfax Holdings through a convertible bond.

Shares in Bank of Ireland plummeted almost 9% yesterday on the back of Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings selling half of its 5.8% stake.

Australia's main national newspaper is facing a worldwide volley of criticism over an obituary calling the nation's most famous author "plain" and "overweight".

An Australian woman has been charged with murder over the deaths of seven of her children and her niece, whose bodies were found inside her home.

Indicted internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has defeated efforts by prosecutors to send him back to a New Zealand jail or make him wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, but says his long-running legal battle has left him broke.

A Thai surrogate mother is desperately trying to raise money to save the life of a six-month-old baby abandoned by his Australian parents after they found out he had Down syndrome.

US investor Wilbur Ross has ruled out a future investment in AIB, although he is looking at other possible investments in Ireland.

Hollywood actor Chris Pine, known for playing Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek movies, has pleaded guilty in a New Zealand court to drink-driving charges.

Bank of Ireland shares dropped over 10% in trading yesterday as two of its biggest shareholders offloaded just under one-third of their stake in the company for over three times their original investment.

Smartphone maker BlackBerry has abandoned its bid to sell itself and is replacing its chief executive.

BlackBerry Ltd, coping with the collapse of a $4.7bn buyout by Fairfax Financial Holdings, will raise $1bn in convertible bonds and seek a new chief executive officer for the struggling company.

Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry has abandoned plans to sell the business and ditched chief executive Thorsten Heins after nearly two years at the helm.

Australia’s ambassador met Indonesian government officials who summoned him following reports the Australian Embassy in Jakarta is a hub for Washington’s secret electronic data collection programme.

BlackBerry says it is committed to completing a series of major changes quickly after posting a nearly billion-dollar loss and a 45% drop in revenue for the second quarter.

BlackBerry has agreed to sell itself for $4.7bn (€3.48bn) to a group led by its largest shareholder, Fairfax.

BlackBerry Ltd’s announcement that it will consider takeover bids followed almost a year of advisers unsuccessfully canvassing potential buyers in search of a deal, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Fairfax Financial Holdings — which has seen its 2011 investment in Ireland’s biggest bank jump about 50% — is now focusing on Greece, betting that the worst has passed for the recession-battered nation.

Referee Alain Rolland was wrong not to allow Australia to make a late substitution and finish their match against South Africa with 15 men, the International Rugby Board (IRB) said hours after backing the officials’ original decision.

An Australian man claimed he was put on hold by Qantas Airways for so long that he managed to read an entire managerial textbook, with the 15-hour phone call being enough time to fly to the US.

Those distinguished former Bank of Ireland governors must be turning in their graves.

Representatives of two of the five investment firms which bought into Bank of Ireland last summer have taken seats on its board.

AUSTRALIAN officials were working yesterday to trace how a top-secret dossier containing detailed plans for US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Australia came to be found in a gutter.

A scandal that threatened to bring down the Australian government eased today when police announced they would not charge a politician accused of misusing an official credit card to pay prostitutes.

Fairfax Media Ltd, publisher of hundreds of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, today reported a AUS$391m (€284.2m) annual loss after writing down the value of its publications amid a challenging environment for media companies.

An Australian MP has been accused of using an official credit card to pay for prostitutes, sparking a political scandal that could bring down the government.

The future of New Zealand’s national news agency was thrown into doubt today when major subscriber and shareholder Fairfax Media announced it was pulling out of the cooperative.

AUSTRALIA has launched a new inquiry into the death of baby Azaria Chamberlain to re-examine claims she was snatched and killed by a dingo at Uluru, or Ayers Rock, in 1980.

New Zealand’s injury concerns ahead of their Tri-Nations clash with South Africa have eased after skipper Richie McCaw, centre Conrad Smith, lock Isaac Ross and hooker Keven Mealamu all came through the team’s light training session in Centurion yesterday.

APN News & Media — effectively the Australian arm of Independent News & Media (INM) — said yesterday that its profits for its current financial year could fall by as much as 5% due to the worsening global credit conditions.

Archaeologists have unearthed a large number of stone tools dating back at least 35,000 years in Western Australia.

A heavily armed teenager who had recently been arrested on carjacking charges was targeting police when he opened fire outside a suburban Washington, DC, police station, killing a detective, officials said today.

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is in hospital with concussion after a fall out of a palm tree while on holiday in Fiji, reports said today.

AUSTRALIA is set to abolish media ownership rules which will allow newspaper publishers including Rupert Murdoch to buy television networks.

Police investigations into the identity of the mystery sniper were stepped up today after a woman was shot and killed outside a shopping centre near Washington DC.

INDEPENDENT News & Media (INM) is to increase dividends to shareholders by 5.5% despite reporting a 10.2% decline in profits for the first sixth months of the year.

TONY O'REILLY and US billionaire investor George Soros are teaming up to make a major media acquisition in Europe.