Two youth groups from Cork have taken top awards at the Irish Cancer Society’s X-HALE Film Festival, an annual event designed to combat smoking among young people.

Irish children are less likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol or take cannabis than in the late 1990s, a study found.

A HIGH Court judge has permitted the Irish arm of European banking giant HBSC to refrain from specifying — at this stage — the capacity in which hundreds of millions of investment monies were passed on by it to companies controlled by US fraudster Bernard Madoff.

IRISH children ranked second for physical activity in a survey of 41 countries and also scored highly for breakfast eating, having close friends and life satisfaction.

GIRLS smoke and drink more than boys and are only slightly less likely to use drugs, according to research for the gardaí.