FIFA’s independent Ethics Committee is continuing to study the secret €5m agreement between FIFA and the FAI, and could yet open a formal investigation into the affair.

Mario Balotelli’s agent has announced he could run for the FIFA presidency.

Third-level lecturers and students have insisted serious funding problems in Ireland’s colleges and universities must be addressed if the system is to cope with future demand.

Young people out of work and the long-term unemployed risk being left behind in any recovery in the economy, a review of the Government’s action plan on jobs has warned.

FOR decades, Haiti was plagued by human-made and natural disasters. But for more than a century it had no cholera, which thrives where sanitation infrastructure is negligible and personal hygiene is poor.

Russia’s top military officer has threatened to launch a pre-emptive strike if Nato goes ahead with controversial plans for a missile defence system in Eastern Europe.

Moroccans are choosing a new parliament today in Arab Spring-inspired elections that are facing a boycott by democracy campaigners who say the ruling monarchy is not committed to real change.

IRELAND has been urged to sign a groundbreaking European convention on preventing violence against women and domestic violence.

THE largest civil service union will today slam commentators and politicians who, it will claim, are shamefully denigrating public sector workers.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) spent almost €45 million hiring agency staff to fill vacancies in the first five months of last year, more than three years into its ban on filling permanent posts.

An official report has criticised the former Minister for Justice for refusing to appoint the Inspectorate of Prisons to investigate the murder of an inmate.

CLAIMS by hospital consultants that they are not to blame for patients waiting needlessly for surgical procedures were rejected yesterday by the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

COUNTERFEIT medicines make up 10% of the total drug market in Europe and the figure is expected to double in the next five years.

Southeast Asian agriculture ministers have agreed to launch a three-year plan next year aimed at stamping out the menace of bird flu in the region – a move they hope will win enough international aid to halt the disease before it becomes a catastrophic global epidemic with the potential to kill millions.

A volcano erupted on the main island of the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean today, sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes at the urging of the government, officials said.

THE number of medical cards held by people who have died or moved away from their health board area has risen to almost 40,000 — up from 25,000 in January.

The air strikes in Afghanistan will only widen the gulf between the West and the Muslim world, a leading Muslim group has warned.

The Department of Health has threatened to ban the televising of Formula 1 racing because of the widespread use of tobacco advertising in the sport.