Irish hotel resorts have taken the top two places and feature in nine of Europe’s 20 best in the latest survey by Condé Nast Traveler magazine.

Come back and write another chapter, Daphne. That’s what Victoria White kept thinking as she stared in horror at the security fencing which now surrounds the Puxley Mansion outside Castletownbere. She explains why.

Lindsay Lohan was found "unresponsive" in her hotel room earlier this morning.

A stolen sketch by Dutch master Rembrandt has been found at a California church, about 20 miles from the luxury hotel lobby it was snatched from over the weekend, authorities have said.

PERFECT restaurants don’t exist.

DESPITE consumer spending concerns, top-end Irish hotels are still busy with bookings and are defying the recession with innovative offers and ways to cut costs.

DIRECT Holidays’ programme for summer 2011 has 17 destinations on offer and three new routes from Cork. Prices start from €299 per person to the Algarve, while a family of four can enjoy 4-star luxury on the Costa Dorada next July for about €1,900 from any of the three main airports.

A suicide bomber blew himself up today beside a police vehicle in a major Istanbul square near tourist hotels and a bus terminal, wounding 32 people, including 15 policemen.

THE average price of a hotel room in Ireland has fallen below the €100 mark for the first time since the start of the recession.

The US warned of a possible New Year’s Eve terrorist attack on Indonesia’s Bali island today.

INDONESIA’S most wanted Islamist militant was killed in a police shoot-out in Central Java, police said yesterday, lifting a major security threat ahead of a planned visit by US President Barack Obama.

A leading south-east Asian terrorist suspect reportedly killed in a gun battle with police at a village hideout was planning a suicide car bomb attack on Indonesia’s president, the national police chief said.

South East Asia’s most wanted terrorist was reportedly shot and killed by police officers who stormed a suspected militant hide-out in Indonesia today to end a 16-hour siege.

LANCE ARMSTRONG wants to conquer St Patrick’s Hill in Cork and he will he will grab the opportunity when the Tour of Ireland finishes in the city on August 23.

A third bomb was set to go off but malfunctioned before two suicide attackers blew themselves up in hotels in Jakarta last week, an Indonesian police official said today.

Explosive material recovered from the scene of two suicide bombings at hotels in the Indonesian capital is “identical” to that used by the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah in earlier attacks, police said today.

Investigators were working today to identify a pair of suicide bombers who attacked two luxury hotels in Indonesia’s capital, killing eight people and injuring 50 others.

SUICIDE bombers posing as guests attacked American luxury hotels in Indonesia’s capital and set off a pair of bombs yesterday that killed at least nine people and wounded more than 50, authorities said.

Suicide bombers posing as guests blew up two luxury Indonesian hotels today killing eight and injuring more than 50.

A pair of powerful bombs exploded at two luxury hotels in an upmarket Jakarta business district today, killing nine and wounding at least 50, Indonesian officials said.

THE Irish Management Institute has postponed its annual two-day conference this year, replacing it with a less glitzy think-tank at its headquarters.

The floodlit cream shells of the famed Opera House dimmed today as Sydney became the world’s first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

England's Paul Casey trailed Geoff Ogilvy over the opening holes as the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship final got under way.

Rory McIlroy had a fight on his hands at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club today as the last eight players left in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship began their bids to reach this evening’s semi-finals.

A DUBLIN hotels chain in fashionable Ballsbridge is offering customers family rooms for two adults and two children from €20 per night in a promotion designed to put “bums on seats”.

A €60 MILLION restoration project on a former stately home burned by the IRA is set to transform it into a luxury five-star hotel.

CULINARY kings and queens were left staring dismally at their unused ladles this week. It seems every gourmand and novice chef must wait a little longer to taste the most raved about supper in town.

GUESTS at the opulent Capella hotel in Castlemartyr can avail of any service they desire once it’s legal and moral, president and chief executive Horst Schulze pledged yesterday at the opening of the €80 million resort.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are planning to renew their wedding vows after being wowed by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' nuptials in Italy last month.

A Hong Kong property tycoon and his wife have reportedly paid around €131,200 for a huge Italian white truffle, which may be the most expensive purchased.

TYPICAL. You wait for years for a tourism project like a five-star hotel and golf course, holiday lodges dotted along the fairways, plus a spa...and then two come along almost at once.

Treasury Holdings has announced details of a €120m investment to develop Ireland’s first Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.

The lead guitarist of rock band Rush faces criminal charges after a New Year’s Eve fight with police in which he was overpowered with a stun gun.