SPENDING cuts and staff embargoes have forced Nenagh General Hospital in Co Tipperary to close its elderly care unit over Christmas and the new year, said Labour’s Senator Alan Kelly.

An elderly pilot died tonight after his glider crashed in a field near an airstrip in Co Kilkenny.

AMBULANCES costing €1,200 per run are used to transport cancer patients in the north-west to Dublin for radiotherapy in the absence of nearby facilities.