Hundreds of residents in South East Clare have been left high and dry for five days after a water main burst last Saturday.

Some of the stranger stories from around the world

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s negotiating teams are today expected to finalise a series of non-Irish Water issues equally central to any government formation deal.

Lands on the Cork side of growth town Midleton, which are part of a larger landbank zoned for strategic future housing needs, are being sold at €25,000 an acre. 

Plans to cut unemployed people’s welfare payments for not paying their water charge bills have been criticised by free legal aid providers and opposition TDs.

Workers earning under €70,000 will have their USC cut in the next budget, Club owner defends two way mirror in ladies toilet, and Ryanair have lost millions as a result of transaction fraud. These are some of the latest and most read news on irishexaminer.com this lunchtime.

Gardaí are likely to issue court summonses to United Left TD Joan Collins and party councillor Pat Dunne in relation to a water meter protest in Crumlin, south Dublin.

Batteries powering water meters in houses will need to be replaced or recharged after 12 years, Irish Water has admitted.

ENGLAND: An ‘Orgone Accumulator’, a vibrator, saucy postcards, erotic pottery and illustrations from the Kama Sutra are on display in a new, year-long exhibition tackling the study of sex.

Irish Water myths:

In yet another rant, Anthony Leavy (Irish Examiner, Letters, 29 October) says the media is not condemning the “mobs who do not want to pay for anything”.

Thousands of people took the streets over the weekend to tell the Government that they won’t be paying their water charges.

By any yardstick, the weekend by-election results were an unmitigated disaster for Ireland’s main political parties. Combined with Saturday’s massive protest bymore than 100,000 people on the streets of Dublin, the outcome is an unmistakable warning shot across the bows of a Government showing all the signs of being out of touch with the mood of an increasingly angry public.

IN THE interest of saving face and restoring trust among its soon-to-be paying customers, Irish Water is expected to provide some clarity on how it spent €50m on outside consultants in its back to back committee appearances over then next 48 hours.

An intruder had been living for a week on Jennifer Lopez’s property in the upmarket Hamptons district of New York while she was away.

The first in a series of crunch meetings takes place at Stormont later aimed at untangling what went on behind the scenes at Northern Ireland Water.

Markets tumbled today after poor employment and manufacturing reports in the US renewed investors’ concerns about the pace of global recovery.

A senior Orange Order member today spoke of his appreciation of the “tenacity” of Bloody Sunday campaigners after the release of the Saville Inquiry report.

A tax increase in the North will be necessary to maintain frontline public services, an economist claimed today.

MORE than 10,000 fans have given an unofficial YouTube thumbs-up to a handful of Irish entrants for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Thames Water could be fined £12.5m (€17.8m) for reporting and customer service failings under proposals announced by water services watchdog Ofwat today.

Bid talk surrounding fund-management firms and a strong performance from Vodafone helped the FTSE 100 Index move further from the 6,000 barrier today.

Anglian Water owner AWG found itself back in the spotlight today as speculation mounted that it could be on the brink of a bid battle.

Good 4U seed mixes are worth looking out for. Vanilla Pumpkin Seeds are high in zinc and iron.

Leopardstown and Galway staged today’s Halloween Bank Holiday meetings.

NTR today announced the completion of a five-year €255m syndicated corporate debt facility with a group of seven leading Irish and International banks.