Thousands of nurses and nursing graduates will not return to this country unless the profession is respected and properly rewarded.

Boys are being exposed to certain preventable cancers and sexually transmitted diseases because of the State’s continuing failure to include them in a vaccination programme available to girls since 2010.

All motions on the provision of abortion services have been rejected at the Irish Medical Organisation annual conference.

Doctors have rejected a call to support the regulation of abortion services, where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother.

The Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has been loudly heckled during his speech at the Irish National Teachers Organisation's annual conference in Cork.

Doctors will discuss the impact of the recession on the health of the nation when they gather for their annual Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) conference in Killarney later.

Tánaiste and new Education Minister Mary Coughlan has warned national school teachers that the sector will not be immune from further cuts.

The first of a series of teacher conferences get underway today with members of the Irish National Teachers Organisation meeting in Galway.

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has challenged claims by health service chief Prof Brendan Drumm that he did not anticipate a loss of income as a byproduct of the new consultants’ contract.

China has launched the first World Trade Organisation case against the administration of President Barack Obama, challenging a US ban on Chinese poultry.

Hollywood beauty Charlize Theron has been talking about the good and bad sides of working for Irish actor/director Stuart Townsend.

China and other members of an Asian security group were today being asked to sign a declaration of support today for Russia’s role in the Georgia conflict.

HOSPITAL consultants insisted yesterday a new contract could be agreed before the summer after Health Minister Mary Harney said she could not wait any longer and was pressing ahead with the recruitment of new consultant posts.

THE recruitment ban in the health service was yesterday described as one of the most short-sighted decisions ever taken by the HSE.

MANY vulnerable victims of crime throughout the country are being failed by the forensic medical service, the Irish Medical Organisation conference in Killarney has heard.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney’s controversial plan for new private hospitals, on existing hospital lands, took a step closer at the weekend with the Health Service Executive (HSE) issuing tender notices for the construction of 11 such facilities.

THE US Government has praised Ireland’s co-operation in the war against terrorism.

HEALTH services will have an extra €7 billion a year in resources within five years if the economy continues to thrive, Health Minister Mary Harney vowed last night.

THE Progressive Democrats may be moving towards a rift with its Fianna Fáil coalition partners over the controversial electronic voting system.

The decision to phase out all EU farm export subsidies by 2013 is a black day for Irish families, farmers’ leaders said tonight.

About 4,000 anti-globalisation activists – some carrying a giant spider and others wheeling along statues of emaciated people – marched today in the first mass protest against the World Trade Organisation’s summit in Hong Kong.

BABIES as young as five months old can have bad experiences that have an influence on the likelihood of them becoming a sexual offender.

JUSTICE MINISTER Michael McDowell was accused yesterday of seeking United Nations approval for plans which it is claimed will discriminate against unmarried and separated fathers.

Macra na Feirme has expressed concern on behalf of Irish farmers ahead of this week's World Trade Organisation negotiations in Cancun, Mexico.

Thousands of oranges will be dumped on the European Commission’s London doorstep tomorrow in protest against the EU’s farm policy.

ANGRY teachers lashed out at Education Minister Noel Dempsey yesterday when they booed and jeered him as he announced there would be no extra money available for school buildings.

Heavily armed gunmen crashed a stolen tractor through the wall of a provincial prison in Haiti, freeing a former supporter of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a host of criminals in Haiti’s second city.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation national conference begins today in Tralee, Co Kerry, with pay set to top the agenda.