An Bord Pleanála has refused planning permission to Trump Doonbeg’s contentious plans for coastal protection plans at the west Clare course.

Planning permission has been granted for a cluster of giant wind turbines around 9km outside Macroom, despite strong opposition from the local community.

TURF CUTTING can continue on all bogs during 2009, according to a statement issued last week by Environment Minister John Gormley.

Conservation workers and volunteers used a high tide today to refloat about 110 pilot whales from a beach where they became stranded a day earlier on New Zealand’s South Island. At least 15 others died, a conservation official said.