Nearly 1,500 Australians and 400 New Zealanders will be VIPs tomorrow when they land in Ireland on part of a round-the-world cruise.

Three people have died after a siege in a Sydney cafe came to a dramatic end yesterday when armed police stormed the building.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's priest will remember him as a "lovely person."

The pope began his eighth year today after spending the waning days of his seventh driving home his view of the Catholic Church, with a divisive crackdown on dissenters and an equally divisive opening to a fringe group of traditionalists.

Nancy Dell’Olio will pen a weekly style column in News International’s new Sun on Sunday newspaper, it was revealed today.

Joe McQuillan’s final whistle was still ringing in Anthony Cunningham’s ears when the first wave of St Brigid’s players and coaches were shaking his hand and offering whatever assistance they could for next month’s All-Ireland final.

Cookbooks now make up half of all non-fiction bestsellers’ lists. Ahead of TasteFest Cork, local foodie Joe McNamee says his favourite Father’s Day gift is a good food tome packed with mouth-watering pictures and delicious treats.

THE killing of Osama bin Laden, a man who was America’s face of evil for nearly a decade, left Christians, Jews and Muslims relieved, proud or even jubilant.

'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' has been axed.

THERE was a poignant footnote to President Obama’s historic July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

Roman Catholic sisters in the US will be questioned about their loyalty to church doctrine amid fears of a Vatican crackdown on liberalism in women’s religious communities.

GARDAÍ expect to have carried out risk assessments on more than 1,000 sex offenders living in the community within the next three months, it emerged yesterday.

UUJ 1-16 Garda College 1-14 (after extra-time)

HAVING more siblings, living on a farm and having parents with no history of allergy or asthma may act as a barrier in children against developing the lung disease.

Try this with new season’s gooseberries.

James Martin’s Desserts, published by Quadrille; €17.69

A Limerick-based developer of information systems for the waste industry has acquired a €1.6m investment in the company.

Sex offenders weren't allowed a chance of rehabilitation by society "whipped on by the tabloid media", Mr Justice Paul Carney said when he jailed a man for seven years for orally raping his stepdaughter.

I BELIEVE the Spire in O’Connell Street in Dublin would be enhanced by a top quality Irish granite base built around it — 4m long by 4m wide by 4m high.

The Department of Justice has said it deeply regrets not being more proactive in trying to find suitable places of detention for children who came before the courts in the 1950s and 1960s.

Longford boss Denis Connerton is facing the prospect of a qualifier tie without his star forward Paul Barden.

RESEARCHERS probing mountains and ancient seas in Antarctica have discovered two previously unknown types of dinosaurs, according to America’s National Science Foundation.

IN Pearse Park on Sunday, among the large crowd braving the elements, there will be the old-timers evoking 1968, the year Longford footballers were feasting at the top table.

All the action from today's O'Byrne and Dr McKenna Cup matches.

Police were today hunting a “skilled shooter” after five people were killed one by one in less than 16 hours in the Washington suburbs.