As the financial crisis engulfing the HSE deepens, it is appalling to see the scale of staff overpayments that continue to draw on the near-empty coffers of a dysfunctional organisation whose bureaucratic bungling makes a mockery of the concept of giving taxpayers value for money.

The South Infirmary Hospital in Cork has issued an unreserved apology to the family of a man with Crohn's disease, who died as a result of medical negligence.

GARDAÍ investigating a serious assault on a pensioner, who was attacked as he made his way home from his local pub, have arrested and questioned two youths.

THE sister of a pensioner who was viciously attacked and beaten by three youths has said she believes her brother would have been killed if a hero taxi driver had not gone to his aid.

Cork Medical Centre is not the first private hospital in Cork to open its doors only to discover the VHI unwilling to come on board, thus scuppering its future, writes Catherine Shanahan

The HSE has confirmed plans to relocate orthopaedic services from St Mary’s Hospital in Cork to the South Infirmary hospital.

Gardaí have launched an investigation after a woman was raped in a public toilet in Kanturk, north Cork, at around 4pm yesterday.

AN end is in sight to the crisis that has left almost 20,000 households in Cork city without water after city officials last night predicted its damaged treatment plant would return to full production before next Sunday.

A TERMINALLY ill groom – who got his dying wish and married his long-term partner in a poignant wedding ceremony last month – has passed away.

THE Government is to be asked to introduce a national ban on the sale of samurai swords after a single city ban was ruled unworkable.

AN Asian woman was dragged from a bus stop in Cork city and sexually assaulted in a nearby road yesterday morning.

Gardaí in Cork are investigating an alleged sexual assault in the city last night.

BLOODIED, naked but serene, baby Sophia’s wriggling caught the eye of kitchen porter Matt Shields.

IF the natural mother of a child briefly known as Sophia does not contact a designated firm of solicitors on South Mall, Cork, today she will surrender all her parental rights.

A FAMILY criticised a hospital’s infection control policies yesterday during the inquest into the MRSA-related death of their mother.

MUNSTER’S biggest hospital was criticised by a coroner yesterday after an inquest into the death of a man from the deadly MRSA superbug.

HUNDREDS of public patients in Cork could be removed from waiting lists if hospitals applied to the body charged with slashing the lists, it emerged yesterday.

HUNDREDS of public patients in Cork could be removed from waiting lists if hospitals applied to the body charged with slashing the lists, it emerged yesterday.

Two foreign nationals are being questioned by gardaí in West Cork in connection with the rape of an 18-year old woman.

An unpublished report finds low staffing levels and a lack of funding mean that three of the country’s four sexual assault treatment units are under serious threat, writes Catherine Shanahan.

THERE was little festive cheer over the weekend in a number of communities hit by tragedies, including the death of a young man in a fire in Cork city.

WHERE once were puffing trains, now cars funnel their way into Cork city via the ring and link road network.

AN investigation has been launched after a woman claimed she was raped by a gang of five men who entered her home through an open front door.

A father-of-one with 48 previous criminal convictions was jailed for 10 years by a judge at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin today for the manslaughter of his friend in 2002.

Three teenage boys were stabbed in a row last night as thousands gathered to celebrate their Junior Certificate results, Gardai confirmed today.

A man in his early 60s has been killed in a single vehicle road accident in Cork city overnight.

A Garda investigation has been launched after the discovery of a man's body in a playground in Cork in the early hours this morning.

A 35-YEAR-OLD woman was being treated in hospital last night after a horrific gang rape involving one man and four teenagers.

A FRESH appeal has been made to the mother of a baby girl abandoned outside a hospital to come forward.

TOP TV entertainer Graham Norton is to strike camp from his Cork city penthouse perch.

GARDAÍ are searching for a rapist who attacked a young student as she walked home from a night out with her friends.

NURSES caring for the abandoned baby girl found in a hold-all on top of a car in Cork on Monday have named her Sophia.

Gardaí in Co Cork are investigating the discovery of an abandoned three-day-old girl in the grounds of the city’s South Infirmary Hospital yesterday.

GARDAÍ are concerned for the welfare of the mother of a three-day-old baby girl found abandoned in Cork city yesterday afternoon.

Gardaí tonight appealed to the mother of a baby girl found abandoned in a hospital car park to come forward.

BREAST cancer screening will be in place for women in Carlow, Kilkenny and Waterford by next year and for women nationwide by the end of 2005.

Two Eastern European men slashed their wrists when immigration officers checked their passports at Cork airport this afternoon, gardaí said.

GARDAÍ in Limerick are making progress in their investigations into two alleged rapes in the city over the weekend.

A LITANY of ward closures, A&E overcrowding problems and appalling services for the elderly have been outlined by angry delegates attending the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) annual conference in Galway.

A garda has saved a woman from drowning in the River Lee in Cork City this morning.

Gardaí have appealed for witnesses after a 26-year-old man died following a stabbing in Cork city this evening.

A man in his twenties has been stabbed to death in Cork city.

A man who died after a fight outside a nightclub in Cork was named by police today as Adrian Moynihan, 23, whose home was in the suburb of Ballyvolane.