An Taisce has put the brakes on the owners of the four-star Radisson Blu hotel in Dublin city centre from proceeding with a major extension plan which includes 103 additional bedrooms.

Global consulting engineering company, Arup, is to move into new Cork City offices, at One Albert Quay, in time for its 70th anniversary.

The High Court has dismissed a mail sorter’s claims she was subjected to a campaign of bullying and harassment which left her “terrified” about returning to her job in a Dublin sorting centre, the High Court heard.

A sum of €4.35m, set aside this year by the National Roads Authority (NRA) for upgrading the N86 Tralee to Dingle road, will now be spent in another part of the country.

Eagle-Eye rather than Hawk-Eye will determine the fate of the GAA’s plan to carry out a €70m redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

This, lads, is great.

Champions Munster bid to become the fourth team guaranteed a place in the B&I Cup quarter-finals when they host Plymouth Albion at Temple Hill, Cork, tonight (7pm).

Barry O’Mahony has been plucked from the relative obscurity of club rugby to fill the number seven position for Munster A in the British and Irish Cup semi-final clash with Leinster at the RDS this evening (6pm).

The General Secretary of the Irish Postmasters Union has said he is not surprised that An Post says it needs to axe 2,000 jobs by 2015 as a result of the recession.

MUNSTER A coach Anthony Foley has been forced to leave a vacancy in his side for tonight’s British and Irish Cup clash with Llanelli in Waterford (7.30pm) as a selection crisis intensified in the province’s Heineken Cup squad.

Selected tips from courses in the UK and Ireland.

An Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin says he sees no need for further inquiries into child abuse in the Irish Catholic church, and resources should be spent elsewhere.

The 65-nation Conference on Disarmament broke a dozen years of deadlock and opened the way to negotiate a new nuclear arms control treaty.

Cork will among 10 port authority companies who will be allowed to expand outside their own harbour under new legislation proposed by the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey.

POLITICIANS canvassing for votes in the general election are getting plenty of ‘stick’ on the doorsteps from people experiencing difficulties in obtaining planning permission in rural areas, a planning conference heard.

Connacht coach Michael Bradley and his assistant Eric Elwood have left a vacancy in their 22-man squad for Friday night¹s Magners League clash with Ospreys at the Sportsground.

I REFER to An Taisce’s recent ‘unreserved’ apology to journalist Fintan O’Toole for describing his plan for his holiday home in Co Clare as ‘criminal’ and an ‘infection’ on the landscape.

Vietnamese legislators today elected Hanoi Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong as the new parliament chief, after accepting three top leaders' resignations in a long-awaited shuffle within the one-party government.

Both Cork and Tipperary have named their sides for Sunday's National Camogie League Division 1A final in Semple Stadium (throw-in 4.00pm).

The Consumers' Association has urged the Government and the Energy Regulator to resist An Bord Gáis’s latest request for a massive price hike.

Anthony Foley will have to shelve his disappointment at not being included in the Ireland Squad as he leads a much-changed Munster side out against Newport-Gwent Dragons in the Celtic League at Musgrave Park on Saturday.

The Government is to invest €1.2bn in third level education in the next five years. The investment will include 35 major building and development projects.

THE latest crackdown on TV licence evaders resulted in almost 12,000 people being prosecuted for the offence last year, An Post confirmed yesterday.

Clare and Waterford, two of the province's football minnows, face off at Cusack Park, Ennis today in the Munster SFC quarter-final.

SOME owners of old, protected buildings in Killarney are allowing them to go derelict so that they can be more easily removed from the list of protected structures, executive planner Fiona O’Sullivan told Killarney Town Council.

A string of Indian islands were rattled by aftershocks today while emergency aid was rushed to survivors of the tsunami waves that killed at least 4,300 people along the nation’s south-eastern coast.

Leinster coach Declan Kidney will take the opportunity to rest some of his front line players in the Celtic League at Cardiff on Saturday.

GAA PRESIDENT Sean Kelly has backed novel rule changes for next year’s secondary provincial competitions which could trigger the introduction of the sin-bin into Gaelic games.

DECLAN KIDNEY has selected a solid-looking side for his first competitive match in charge of Leinster.

The most hated man in Belgium, paedophile Marc Dutroux, was today convicted of the murder of girls he kidnapped and tortured.

Marc Dutroux, chief defendant in a horrific child rape and murder trial that has transfixed Belgium for over three months, rejected the most serious charges against him today in a final courtroom appeal before a jury decides his fate.

Psychiatrists testified today that Marc Dutroux, who is standing trail for kidnapping, abuse and murder involving six young girls, was a psychopath who knew exactly what he was doing.

Wexford hurling boss John Conran has opted to start David 'Doc' O'Connor in attack for Sunday's NFL tie with Laois at O'Moore Park.

WITH his side already through to the knockout stages of the Allianz NHL, Tipperary manager Ken Hogan has rested a number of first choice players for Sunday’s clash with Cork at Pairc Uí Chaoimh.

A resolution to the escalating postal crisis looked a long way off tonight despite both sides entering into mediation talks.

Galway have left two vacancies in their line-up ahead of Sunday's clash with Laois in the hope that both Kevin Walsh and Barry Dooney will be fit.

Eliciting gasps of horror in the courtroom, Marc Dutroux took the stand today to describe how he kidnapped and raped young girls in the mid-1990s.

BELGIUM'S public enemy Number One and three co-defendants went on trial yesterday for kidnapping, abusing and killing young girls in a mid-1990s crime spree that shocked the country.

Belgium’s public enemy Number One and three co-defendants went on trial today for kidnapping, abusing and killing young girls in a mid-1990s crime spree that shocked the country.

The prospect of an historic visit to Ireland by the queen of England edged closer today after Princess Anne jetted into Dublin to meet President Mary McAleese.

GALWAY’S dual hurling and football star Kevin Brady could face a lengthy suspension after he has been called to appear before the GAC in Croke Park next month.