A major international hotel chain is set to take over the running of the Great Southern Hotels in Ireland.

THE Irish-owned hotel group Carlton Hotels is looking to expand its number of properties into double digits over the next 18 months via a major multimillion euro expansion drive.

Love Island winner Calum Best is to jet into Ireland later this month for a high-profile fashion event.

A BRITISH man was killed and two British women injured when a gunman opened fire on tourists in Jordan yesterday.

Teenager Rory McIlroy came of age when he successfully defended the Radisson SAS West of Ireland Championship with a brilliant putting display at Rosses Point.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy is still on course for the Radisson SAS West of Ireland title at Rosses Point after producing a stellar performance to beat Scrabo’s Ryan Boal with a birdie at the 20th in the first round.

Teen idol Rory McIlroy cruised into the matchplay stages of the Radisson SAS West of Ireland Amateur Open championship at Rosses Point.

England's David Horsey fired a four under par 67 on his 21st birthday to grab the first-round lead in strokeplay qualifying for the Radisson SAS West of Ireland Championship.

RTÉ spent more than €150,000 on wining and dining audiences during the last television season.

The Radisson SAS hotel chain has announced plans to create 250 jobs at the new hotel it is building in Cavan.

JORDAN introduced strict security measures aimed at foreigners yesterday and said it was drafting the country’s first anti-terror legislation to prevent further attacks like last week’s triple hotel bombings.

AMERICAN forces last year detained and later released an Iraqi with a name that matched one of three suicide bombers who struck Amman hotels, killing 57 people, the US military said yesterday.

Wearing a disabled explosives belt and a white headscarf and wringing her hands as she spoke, the Iraqi woman calmly described how she tried and failed to join her husband in a suicide attack on a hotel wedding party.

AN Iraqi woman appeared on Jordanian television yesterday confessing to a failed bid to set off an explosives belt inside one of the three Amman hotels targeted by al-Qaida.

An Iraqi woman appeared on Jordanian television today confessing to a failed bid to set off an explosives belt inside one of the three Amman hotels targeted by al-Qaida.

Police have arrested an Iraqi woman would-be suicide bomber who failed to detonate her explosives inside one of Amman’s three bombed hotels, Jordanese officials announced today in a dramatic breakthrough in the case.

Iraq’s defence minister today attacked Syria for letting militants train on its soil for attacks in Iraq.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II today threatened to crack down on supporters of terrorists following this week’s triple hotel bombings that killed at least 57 people.

An internet statement today in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq claimed the deadly hotel bombings in Jordan were carried out by four Iraqis, including a husband and wife “who chose to accompany her husband to his martyrdom”.

Police have arrested at least 120 people, mainly Iraqis and Jordanians, in the nationwide manhunt for those behind the triple Amman hotel bombings, a senior police official said today.

Moustapha Akkad, the Syrian-born producer of the Halloween horror films, died today from injuries sustained in the triple hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan.

Thousands of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities shouting “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!” a day after three deadly hotel bombings that killed at least 59 people.

US President George Bush today condemned the hotel bombings in Jordan, saying the attackers defiled Islam and the United States would help bring those responsible to justice.

Police in New York have stepped up patrols of hotels in Manhattan as a precaution following the suicide bombings of three hotels in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

Suicide bombers carried out nearly simultaneous attacks on three US-based hotels in the Jordanian capital last night, killing at least 57 people and wounding at least 115 in an al-Qaida-style assault on the Arab kingdom with close ties to the United States and a border with Iraq.

JORDAN is the homeland of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and has previously arrested scores of Islamic militants for plotting to carry out attacks in the moderate Arab kingdom.

At least 53 people were now believed killed and more than 300 injured after explosions rocked three hotels in the Jordanian capital Amman today.

IRELAND’S ninth Radisson SAS Hotel, located in Little Island, Cork, was officially opened last night by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin.

A NEW international four-star hotel in Little Island is expected to create 145 new jobs and pump millions of euro into the Cork economy.

The Radisson SAS Hotel group has announced plans to create 145 new jobs in Cork when it opens a new hotel in Little Island in June of this year.

Roy Keane once again put his rivals in the shade as he backed a bid to raise thousands of euro for much-needed guide dog training.

Belfast’s newest luxury hotel will be open for business at the end of August, it was announced today.

TRAVEL operator USIT has gone on the road to promote a programme offering seasonal work visas of up to 10 months’ in the US.

London's Stansted Airport - which has several connections to Irish airports - is to get a new 500-room hotel.