Singer Charlotte Church denied today that she had proposed to her musician boyfriend.

IT’S time to dig out the barbecues again as balmy 24C sunshine is predicted for the country next week — 11C above normal for the time of year and almost matching 2011’s top temperature.

IRELAND’S awful summer has seen the worst top temperatures for almost 50 years and the coldest August for two decades with forecasters writing off the rest of the summer they branded a “stinker”.

IRELAND’S soggy summer is the coldest since records began 25 years ago — and forecasters last night wrote off the rest of summer, warning of regular washouts and no hot weather.

IN OCTOBER 1987, weatherman Michael Fish stood in front of a rainbow graphic and reported that a woman had phoned the BBC to say a hurricane was on the way.

CELEBRITIES can now post online corrections to what they consider misinformation and slurs about their character.

A FULL year before the US-led invasion of Iraq, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair told his chief of staff, the West should be “gung-ho” on toppling Saddam Hussein, a panel looking into the conflict disclosed yesterday.

Tony Blair said today that he had always made clear to US president George Bush that he would be “up for” regime change in Iraq if it was the only way of dealing with Saddam Hussein.

Charlotte Church would love to have more children.

Charlotte Church is “not ready” to settle down with her boyfriend.

The Welsh singer Charlotte Church split from rugby player fiance Gavin Henson – with who she has two children, three-year-old Ruby and Dexter, 21 months - in May and admitted that raising happy, well-adjusted children is harder to do with a busy workload.

Charlotte Church asked Gavin Henson for “permission” before embarking on a new relationship.

Singer Charlotte Church today spoke of her concerns about the impact of her break up with former fiancee Gavin Henson on their two children.

Charlotte Church appeared “really close” to a new man this weekend.

After one of the harshest winters for many years, many people are hoping they will get to enjoy a proper summer.

Former attorney general Peter Goldsmith today described how he gave the "green light" for military action against Iraq just a month after expressing concerns about the legality of the war.

One of Tony Blair's closest advisers will be grilled by the Iraq Inquiry today as it starts a week of evidence sessions dominated by key political figures.

Tony Blair’s former spin chief should face a fresh grilling by the Iraq Inquiry after he issued a “clarification” of his previous evidence, a senior MP said today.

THOUSANDS of people entirely dependent on social welfare payments have suffered delays in accessing the vital funds because of the worst cold snap to hit Ireland in a generation.

The current spell of bitterly cold weather is set to continue until around March, according to predictions issued today.

MAJOR concerns remain about the wellbeing of Fr Michael Sinnott despite the release of a video by his kidnappers in the Philippines at the weekend, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin.

The elderly Irish priest snatched by a kidnap gang in the Philippines is believed to be alive and has received vital medicine for a heart problem, it emerged today.

The leading Belfast republican and IRA leader, Brian Keenan, has died after a long illness.

The head of British Intelligence in the North is among a string of security chiefs to have been quizzed by the inquiry into the murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, it emerged today.

A lot done, but much more to do, is the final verdict on the Taoiseach, says Political Correspondent Paul O’Brien.

TEN YEARS on from that Good Friday, and despite Anglo-Irish relations never having been so good, it’s still a tale of three cities. London, Dublin and Belfast continue to inhabit very different mental worlds. Reactions to a newly-published account of the search for Northern peace by Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, are a case in point.

IT HAS gone on 10 years, cost €250 million to date and raked up decades of painful history but a book now claims Sinn Féin never wanted a new Bloody Sunday inquiry in the first place.

There would have been no need for a Bloody Sunday Inquiry if the British government had admitted its guilt over the role of paratroopers in the deaths of 14 civilians in Derry, Martin McGuinness said today.

THE Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) opened its own secret back channel to Sinn Féin in 2003 despite the fact it was publicly refusing to deal with the republican party because the IRA was still active.

TONY BLAIR “turned the air blue” with expletives when he discovered his government was only giving DUP leader Ian Paisley a photograph album for his 50th wedding anniversary in 2006, a book has revealed.

TONY BLAIR redrafted an IRA statement at the prime minister’s country residence Chequers in the presence of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in 2003, a senior aide to the former British prime minister has revealed.

TONY BLAIR will finally bid farewell to No 10 today after his last appearance at the Commons Despatch Box.

It could have been a humdrum day in any parliament, with low-key speeches in a hushed, panelled and pillared room.

COMING to this theatre of racing dreams with favoured horses is always something of a double-edged sword and Philip Hobbs yesterday slipped and fell on the sharp edge of that particular weapon when hot-pots Fair Along and Detroit City failed to live up to expectations.

Seemingly from nowhere, Martin Brassil has emerged as one of this country’s rising training talents over the past two years. But, as Declan Colley discovered, the quietly spoken Curragh handler prefers to let his charges do the talking for him.

New Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain insisted today he would have a direct, hands-on role in trying to bring devolution back permanently to the province and cement the peace process.

Downing Street said tonight no legislation was needed “at this stage” for Prince Charles’ marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles to proceed.

British Minister Tony Blair was under pressure tonight to stand by his insistence on the IRA getting rid of its weapons.

WITH clarity of voice and affable manner, Lord Butler of Brockwell delivered his damning verdict on the failings of intelligence over Iraq.

JOHN SCARLETT, the man who drew up the British Government’s dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, should not lose his job as chief of MI6 despite flaws in intelligence in the run-up to the war, the Butler report said yesterday.

John Scarlett, the man who drew up the British government’s dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, should not lose his job as chief of MI6 despite flaws in intelligence in the run-up to the war, the Butler report said today.

The Democratic Unionists will stick to their demand that the IRA winds down if Sinn Féin is to take part in a power-sharing executive, the Rev Ian Paisley insisted tonight.