The UN children’s fund has warned that 3.6 million Iraqi children are at “serious risk” of death, injury, sexual violence, abduction and recruitment into armed groups.

A mother who miraculously survived after being burned in a barbecue accident has raised over €200,000 for the National Burns Unit, where she received life-saving treatment.

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A trust to raise funds for a young woman who was paralysed in a fall will be launched tomorrow night.

A lavish fund-raising effort from Kerry GAA chiefs in New York, Chicago and Boston has helped put a €1 million dent in the cost of the Kingdom’s proposed Centre of Excellence at Currans, near Farranfore.

More than 90% of SMEs cannot process online sales while six in every 10 cannot take orders online either.

The trustees of Coillte’s pension plan have staked a claim to €20m worth of state-owned forestry following a secret settlement to their High Court dispute.

The Irish relatives of the newly crowned Rose of Tralee popped champagne corks yesterday to celebrate her victory and invited her to visit her ancestral island home again.

Investec Oaks runner-up Secret Gesture will not run in the Darley-sponsored equivalent at the Curragh on Saturday after suffering a setback.

China’s leaders face new pressure to stimulate a slowing economy after growth decelerated for a second consecutive quarter, hurt by weak trade and efforts to cool a credit boom.

There were two significant economic developments this week. Both Finance Minister Michael Noonan and the deputy governor of the Central Bank, Matthew Elderfield, said that the stress tests of the banks would be carried out over the first half of 2014 to coincide with the EU-wide stress tests.

Details of a new €2.5bn anti-poverty fund are being announced today.

The High Court will decide today if it is to continue an order restraining Bank of Scotland selling to a hedge fund a total of €67m debt owed to the bank by a shipping firm which employs more than 300 people.

A High Court judge has expressed concern about aspects of an application by Aer Lingus Group plc for approval for a €500m share capital reduction in a situation where there is a €700m shortfall in the Aer Lingus pension fund.

A New York City judge is expected to rule by the end of the week on whether to throw out a hotel maid’s lawsuit claiming that former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her.

AGRICULTURE Minister Simon Coveney has declared his commitment to horse racing and revealed legislation will be unveiled “in weeks” that will enable online betting to be taxed.

HOUSEHOLDERS living in flood-damaged buildings yesterday began receiving payments from the Irish Red Cross humanitarian fund.

A French novelist who accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape is pressing ahead with legal action against him.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned from his post as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it was confirmed today.

Projects to tackle division in Northern Ireland and across the border have been handed more than £8m in funding.

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THE head of Germany’s Central Bank has expressed serious doubt over the potential effectiveness of the proposed European Stabilisation Fund, which is aimed at reducing future failings in the international banking sector.

Stormont's Parliament Buildings should join iconic sites such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Sydney Opera House in staging a 'black-out' to highlight climate change, it was claimed today.

Giorgio Armani is making a $1m (€781,208) donation to help fund a New York arts programme.

US FUND manager Harris Associates has increased its stake in Bank of Ireland to just over 7%.

The Lloyds TSB-HBOS merger faces fresh opposition after trustees of the HBOS pension fund today voted to ask in court for the deal to be delayed until better protection is offered for the scheme.

A YOUNG Irish man who was beaten and left for dead in a brutal attack in Australia five weeks ago has arrived home.

Details will be announced today of an international summit on cluster bombs beginning in Dublin next week.

THE fund unit of AIB had the best performing Irish pension fund in the first half of the year, a survey by Mercer Investment Consulting has shown.

AIB and Enterprise Ireland are to contribute €15 million each to a new fund to invest in growing businesses.

Kung fu king Jackie Chan is starring in a new short - he appears in a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) public service announcement warning children about the dangers of bird flu.

SIPTU is holding a public meeting in Dublin Airport this evening to discuss its concerns about the planned privatisation of Aer Lingus.

FRIENDS First and asset management company, F&C Ireland are set to target Irish charitable foundations through the establishment of a new umbrella fund called the Charities Managed Fund.

AIB Investment Managers has announced that its European Property Stocks Fund has generated a return of almost 39% in less than one year of operation.

A DRUG group said it will have to severely cut a planned project to combat drug use among children, some as young as 10, after it received half the funding it needed from the Government.

FUND manager Montgomery Oppenheim is changing its name to Oppenheim Investment Managers.

Criminals paid out more than €16m in tax last year following probes by the Criminal Assets Bureau, it emerged tonight.

Eight million euro has been donated by the American Ireland Fund to over 300 charities and community organisations throughout the country.

The International Fund for Ireland today reported investment in 2004 of €36.5m in more than 300 projects in Northern Ireland and the border counties in the Republic.

THE Government has doubled the amount of aid pledged to those affected by the Asian tsunami to E20 million, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said yesterday.

Two members of staff at an organisation set up by the British government to help police widows and officers injured during the Northern Ireland troubles have been arrested by police investigating terrorist and criminal activity, it was revealed today.

THE Government should consider a successor to the Special Savings Incentive Account (SSIA) scheme, a conference will be told today.

A MULTI-MILLION euro fund to help Irish people who were victims of the Troubles in the North is to be opened to applicants almost four years after the move was first recommended.