The last UK combat troops have left Camp Bastion in a huge airlift operation marking the final chapter in the 13-year Afghanistan conflict.

It’s almost 13 years since a basketball club was founded in the Carlow village of Ballon to cater for recreational female players aged 30 or over.

Battling the rising tide of cyber crime demands a local, national and global response, but above all common sense, writes Kyran FitzGerald.

When it comes to football punditry, I find that ole Bobby Zimmerman rarely lets you down.

Find out some more about the decisive who could make or break dreams.

Between Shades of Gray

“Tell the Government to recapitalise the credit unions,” shouted one ecstatic football fan. “We’re going to Poland!”

BELIEVE in me, he told us.

Republic of Ireland 1 Estonia 1 (Ireland win 5-1 on aggregate)

The Republic of Ireland have qualified for the Euro 2012 Championship after drawing 1-1 with Estonia tonight, winning the tie 5-1 on aggregate.

HT: Republic of Ireland 1 Estonia 0 (Aggregate: 5-0)

LAST Thursday Tarmo Ruutli gave a press conference that was soundtracked by laughter.

IT looks like Joxer will be going to Warsaw. Or maybe it will be Kiev.

SO that’s that almost settled then.

THE conventional route to international football success has always been to win your home games and avoid losing away.

I HEARD the great American sports writer Jerry Izenberg blow the dust of some great tales this week on Newstalk’s Off the Ball programme.

Shay Given has warned his Republic of Ireland team-mates their play-off experience will count for nothing if they underestimate Estonia.

Stephen Ward will approach Friday’s opening Euro 2012 play-off clash with Estonia as the biggest game of his life.

Giovanni Trapattoni has warned his Republic of Ireland players they can take nothing for granted as they prepare for their Euro 2012 showdown with Estonia.

Newcastle striker Leon Best has been drafted into the Republic of Ireland squad for the Euro 2012 play-off against Estonia amid a growing injury crisis.

Defender John O’Shea is a major doubt for the Ireland’s Euro 2012 play-off against Estonia.

John O’Shea was delighted to see the Republic of Ireland drawn against Estonia in next month’s Euro 2012 play-off, but has warned that any hint of complacency against the Baltic minnows will lead to yet more heartbreak for the long-suffering nation.

THERE aren’t many fans who revere an 8-1 defeat but as the years went by, Estonians looked back with increasing fondness on their match against Latvia in August 1942.

HOW THEY QUALIFIED

IF the sight of FAI chief executive John Delaney grinning after his team were drawn to face Estonia in the Euro 2012 qualifying play-off matches next month told its own story, the feeling was definitely mutual for his Estonian counterpart.

AS Faroe Islands manager, Brian Kerr has inadvertently become the go-to guy when it comes to people seeking enlightenment about Ireland’s play-off opponents.

GIOVANNI Trapattoni has warned people not to lose the run of themselves and think Ireland are already through to the European Championship finals.

Estonia midfielder Tarmo Kink has warned Ireland they will not have things all their own way as they attempt to book their place at the Euro 2012 finals.

ALTHOUGH Giovanni Trapattoni insists he has no particular preference about who Ireland get in today’s European Championship play-off draw, he observed yesterday that Estonia tend more towards the physical than the creative — and teams high on creativity are the ones which cause him most concern.

CONSIDERING their profile and storied history, it’s a startling stat but a fact nonetheless: Shamrock Rovers have never won a game in Europe’s premier club competition.

IF Ireland was not broke we would not consider closing the Seanad, but because we are the €50,000 an hour this ineffective, indulgent — as well as indulged — institution costs when it sits has made its future, all of a sudden, a pressing issue.

Estonia’s centre-right government is poised to stay in power for a second term after winning a clear parliamentary majority in the Baltic country’s first election as a eurozone member, preliminary results showed.

Estonia holds its first election as a eurozone member today, with the centre-right government hoping for an unprecedented second term for steering one of Europe’s most depressed economies back to growth.

Estonia U-21s 1 Republic of Ireland U-21s 1

Maritime chiefs admitted that they always knew where the “missing” freighter Arctic Sea was, but agreed to keep silent in a bid to bring a dangerous hijacking drama to a bloodless end.

Parliament has approved a law making Estonia the first country to allow voting by mobile phone.

THE EU’s border and passport-free Schengen area stretches as far as Russia, Ukraine and Belarus from midnight last night as eight of the new member states join the zone.

England handed a full debut to Joleon Lescott for the crucial Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia in Moscow.

Steven Gerrard has revealed he tried to persuade Liverpool team-mate Jamie Carragher to “stay involved” with England – but he has every confidence in Sol Campbell to fill the breach left by injured captain John Terry.

Ethnic Russians marked the Second World War victory over the Nazis in peaceful celebrations today, nearly two weeks after Estonia was rocked by violent protests when the government moved a Red Army monument from central Tallinn.

A pro-Kremlin youth group today said it would end a blockade of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow, where activists have been protesting for days over the relocation of a statue of a Soviet soldier in the Estonian capital.

Estonia’s prime minister today said any Russian boycott of Estonian goods was “doomed to fail” because many products originating in the Baltic country had a European Union label.

Nato today called on Russia to stop threats against Estonian embassy staff in Moscow and to resolve its dispute with the Baltic state stemming from the removal of a Soviet war memorial.

Estonian police detained more than 200 people overnight in the third day of unrest after the government's decision to remove a Soviet war memorial in Tallinn.