A step-down facility for high-risk sex offenders leaving prison has shut, and there is no national plan in place to deal with sex offenders who become homeless, a senior probation service official has warned.

Years of conflict and violence have left an indelible mark on Iraqi citizens, their lands and their future. But it is the Iraqis’ resilience, and indeed their black humour, which strikes a chord with Political Reporter, Juno McEnroe

RANDOM bomb attacks and day-to-day violence continue to ruin the lives of Iraqi citizens.

REMOVING landmines and unexploded bombs from Iraqi lands is not the sole responsibility of international NGOs and donor countries.

IRELAND has donated €12.8m in funding for humanitarian aid to causes for Iraqi citizens since 2006, the latest figures reveal.

As US forces pulled out of Iraq, Political Reporter Juno McEnroe travelled to the country to investigate how Irish funds are being used to clear the countryside of landmines

MANY victims of landmines or unexploded war munitions in Iraq are children.

IN the small village of Baghluja just outside Dohuk, returning families, mostly Christian, have braved their lands again after not only being thrown from homes by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1990s but after having recently discovered their fields were riddled with unexploded bombs.

Pehmerga soldier Chnor Sabir Karim on duty in Sulaymaniyah.

ATTENTION to detail can be lifesaving.

A British bomb disposal expert working on land mine clearance has died in an explosion, it was announced today.

HBOS shareholders will meet in Birmingham today to vote on the bank’s rescue takeover by Lloyds TSB and an £11.5bn (€12.9bn) taxpayer bail-out.

HBOS shareholders will gather tomorrow to vote on the bank’s rescue takeover by Lloyds TSB and a £11.5bn (€12.95bn) taxpayer bail-out.

A legal challenge against the decision to waive competition law to allow the planned merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB was rejected today.

The decision to allow the proposed merger of HBOS and Lloyds TSB was not influenced by statements made by the British Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer apparently in favour of the plan, a tribunal heard today.

A last-ditch bid to block the planned Lloyds TSB merger with HBOS was launched in the UK today.

The UK’s second largest airport operator today signalled it would be interested in buying Gatwick Airport if its Spanish owner is forced to sell it.

MOTORCYCLISTS are demanding the removal of wire road barriers after the European Commission announced a planned safety review of the system.

International anti-landmine charity MAG (Mines Advisory Group) has leaped to the defence of its spokesperson Heather Mills, after her recent barrage of press criticism.

SEVEN out of ten motorcyclists have never received basic lessons, relying instead on trial and error and advice from biking friends.

A 53-YEAR-OLD British bomb disposal expert has been killed in a roadside ambush in northern Iraq.