Gardaí have been called in by the HSE to investigate claims of illegal drug use by ambulance personnel.

LÉ Eithne was steaming towards the Sicilian port of Palermo last night with 410 migrants she had rescued from the Mediterranean Sea.

NORTH KOREA: French-trained chefs are cooking up a storm in Pyongyang where North Korea’s privileged classes are devouring their baguettes, a pro-North newspaper reported, even as much of the population outside the capital struggles to feed itself.

Tesco was dealt a new blow yesterday as Standard & Poor’s joined Moody’s Investors Service in cutting debt at the UK’s biggest grocer to below investment grade.

The country’s top judge has said she was delighted that the Government had earmarked a site for the construction of a dedicated courts complex to deal with family-related cases.

A deadly snowfall that crippled a US state is finally expected to stop – but people now face the threat of massive flooding as temperatures rise through the weekend.

Third-level students are to engage in underwater robot wars as part of the first innovation week organised by the Irish Maritime and Energy Research Cluster.

The Naval Service has said the vast majority of 116 people who may have come in contact with potentially lethal asbestos have been medically screened and it will shortly award a contract to experts to carry out a fleet-wide survey for the substance.

A specialist company has started removing asbestos from two Naval Service ships which have been locked down for a number of weeks due to the discovery of the potentially lethal substance onboard.

A Courts Service spokesman says Ireland's judges do undergo training in relation to rape cases.

St Luke's Hospital in Dublin has officially become a smoke-free campus.

One man was killed, scores of homes were destroyed and hundreds of people were forced to evacuate as almost 100 wildfires burned across Australia’s most populous state today.

A convicted rapist told prison officers he planned to attack a journalist with a razor blade during his sentencing hearing yesterday.

There has been a sharp increase in Irish people seeking bankruptcy in Britain, according to latest figures released by Britain’s Insolvency Service.

IF a woman can’t physically get away from an abusive relationship, she can use the law to make her partner stay away, but the process isn’t always straightforward or foolproof.

The United States Government has confirmed it has joined a civil lawsuit against Lance Armstrong to claim around $100m (€75m) from the disgraced cyclist.

New laws to reform a limited ban on abortion will create a culture of life and not one of death, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

One serious racist incident is reported every week, new figures show.

Sports stars Ronan O’Gara and Graham Canty will be caught up in the drama this weekend as one of the largest ever emergency services showcases in Ireland is staged.

The Ambulance Service has apologised to the family of a 19-year-old girl, who died after she was taken to hospital via an indirect route.

An action group has claimed a success in ensuring a largely populated east Cork town will retain its ambulance service.

Patients at Antrim Area Hospital have had to be moved from one part of the building to another today, after contractors working there hit a gas pipe, causing a leak.

PLANNING permission is being sought by University College Cork (UCC) for a new €11 million Maritime Research and Testing Centre which will ultimately be home to up to 150 research scientists.

Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars in a search for victims of a half-mile-wide tornado that killed at least 116 people as it blasted a Missouri town off the map and tore through its hospital.

Riots in north Belfast over July 12 cost police £1.1m (€1.3m) , it was revealed today.

THE Courts Service had its busiest year ever in 2009 as its workload swelled due to the impact of the economic crash.

THE HSE may discipline staff at a psycho-geriatric hospital where a patient died after slipping down a chair and choking on a restraining belt.

The Department of Education was among a list of State bodies which breached laws aimed at providing services in the Irish language, it was revealed today.

TOP-RANKING clerics including cardinals and archbishops will have to explain themselves if they want to be excused from jury service, under plans to be published today.

The Irish Courts Service has today defended its role in the recent loophole discovered in the penalty points system.

A NATIONAL helpline number to co-ordinate all requests from the public during the big freeze was sought yesterday by Irish Rural Link (IRL).

The number of people chasing debt through the courts during the economic downturn has doubled, it emerged today.

A counselling service for adults who have suffered abuse as children is urging more men to contact them.

WATERFORD is to get a new standalone family court in an effort to deal with a growing backlog of cases and free up the main courthouse for criminal and civil cases.

A REVIEW into cancer services at University College Hospital Galway has revealed a locum pathologist made mistakes in cancer checks of 50 patients.

RTE’s environment correspondent announced on Monday that the natterjack toad is “unique to Castlemaine” and more than 40 farmers have signed up to save the toad.

The Irish Prison Service today hit out at a study which accused jails of making no effort to ensure inmates remain in contact with their families.

THE Courts Service has accepted a plan for wide-ranging reforms of the family law system that will allow the public to follow sample proceedings and enable judges’ decisions to be centrally recorded for the first time.

ADVOCATES of the elderly are concerned that health chiefs are rolling back on a promise to independently investigate practices at a Co Clare public nursing home.

SICK leave in prisons fell in the first four months of this year, halting an alarming upward trend.

More than one woman is raped in Dublin every day, new figures revealed today.

More than 100 drunk drivers a week are being caught by PSNI officers in the North in the run up to Christmas.