The latest food scandal in China is spreading fast, dragging in US coffee chain Starbucks, Burger King, and others, as well as McDonald’s products as far away as Japan.

Ordnance Survey Ireland has been strongly condemned over its decision to award bonuses worth €30,000 to four individuals in 2011, despite a Government ban on such payments.

Airport scanners with their all-too revealing body images are to be scrapped, America’s transport authority says.

Forget the socks and smelly candles, Jonathan deBurca Butler picks some weird and wacky gifts to spice up your Christmas stockings

A total of 7,330 new residential and commercial buildings were identified across the country in the first six months of 2011, according to figures released today by GeoDirectory.

A survey has found that 17,587 new buildings were identified across the country in 2010.

A secret report condemned the US government for knowingly allowing Nazis to settle in America after the Second World War.

HIKING and walking are now the most popular activity pursuits by tourists in Ireland, with upwards of two million people, including home and overseas visitors, taking part each year.

Dublin’s stylish Grafton Street was today revealed as the public’s favourite thoroughfare in the capital.

DUBLIN-based specialist tour operator Croatia Tours is one of the few Irish travel companies that can claim to be experiencing an increase in demand for the 2010 summer holiday season.

IRISH economic recovery could be boosted by the Government following its US counterpart’s lead in adopting geographical information (GI) technology as a tool with which to improve investment planning and monitoring, it was claimed yesterday.

THE body representing more than 100 civil society groups who act on behalf of the marginalised in society has warned that dissenting voices are being silenced amid fears any criticism of the Government will see a cut in their funding.

THE board of Combat Poverty is to meet in an emergency session tomorrow to devise a survival plan amid further indications that the agency will be scrapped as a government cost-cutting measure.

Fish for your Bones: BIM and the Osteoporosis Society of Ireland (OSI) have joined forces to heighten consumer awareness of the important role oil-rich fish play in ensuring the growth and development of healthy bones.

A PIECE of salted ling, barely visible among many common and even exotic species in the fish department of Cork’s throbbing English market the other day, evoked memories.

AMERICANS searching for their roots have been given access to a new website allowing them to start digging for clues before they ever arrive on Irish soil.

FIANNA FÁIL’S two TDs for the Waterford constituency, including Environment Minister Martin Cullen, have been called on to “end the deception” and tell the people of Dungarvan whether or not the Government’s decentralisation package is going to be delivered for the town.

A FIANNA FÁIL deputy has accused his constituency colleague John Deasy TD of making “damaging and over-the-top” comments about decentralisation and other local developments.

IDENTIFYING each other as their principal rival, Dermot Kelly and John McCarthy have justified the decision of the organisers to seed them in the top two positions for Sunday’s Mitchelstown-based Sean Conlon Memorial Tipperary Forest Rally — the second round of the KBB Doors National Forest Rally Championship.

Ordnance Survey staff are to ballot for industrial action.