The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the Malaysian ambassador has been labelled persona non grata and ordered to leave within 48 hours.

North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia faces a deadline to leave the country after authorities moved to expel him and accused Pyongyang of trying to manipulate the investigation into the poisoning of Kim Jong Nam.

The chief financial officer of the Californian custom product company Zazzle tells reporter Pádraig Hoare why he made Cork his new home last year.

A dispute over custody of the body of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half-brother is raging between Malaysia and Pyongyang as inquiries continue into his apparent assassination.

THERE is a jarring juxtaposition early in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian.

Operating profits at the Chinese-owned firm that operates the luxury Fota Island Resort in Cork fell last year by 37% to €232,845.

It always says a lot for a hotel and its restaurant when locals choose to dine there. The revamped Kingsley achieves just that, says Joe Leogue.

Kilkenny’s five-star Lyrath Hotel has just been sold for well over €20m to an Irish consortium of buyers who plan to invest further in the 170-acre resort investment, which was developed at a boom-time cost of €50m.

Sung Kang set a new course record at Monterey Peninsula with a career-low round of 60 to hold a share of the lead at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California.

The €13 million sale agreed of East Cork’s Castlemartyr Resort to UK buyer Martin Shaw could prove fortuitous: business sources say interest is picking up for a major new biotech employer for a sizeable portion of the Amgen pharma site in Carrigtwohill east of Cork city, which was moth-balled after a major infrastructural investment and land-buying spree almost a decade ago.

The Chinese-owned firm that operates the luxury Fota Island Resort hotel in Cork recorded pre-tax profits of just over €113,000 in its first year in business.

A five-star hotel, opened by then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2008, which was developed at a cost of €70m, is now priced for sale at €13m.

A hotel that found itself ‘underwater’, and which had to be bailed out by foreign money, was an apt spot for economist, David McWilliams, to expound on matters financial.

Fota Island Resort is in the market to welcome back the Irish Open to Cork "in the not too distant future", as the city and county prepares to bid for a number of spectacular international sporting events on the back of a successful staging of the European Tour event.

An un-named Chinese investor has stitched up a deal on Fitzgerald House, an 11,600 sq ft property facing Cork city’s English Market and adjacent to the dramatically just-painted up Singers Corner, where - coincidentally - a commissioned mural by artist Johnny Bugler depicts a floral Chinese pattern, as seen on old Singer sewing machines.

A hotel which had to close following extensive flooding five years ago will reopen today following an almost €5m investment.

Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell may have come up short in this year’s quest for an Irish Open victory, but both would be delighted to give it another shot at Fota Island Resort after a hugely successful week in Cork.

WHEN Kerry Katona proudly displayed her ‘mummy tummy’ last month, little did we know that the mother of five was about to launch a new fitness DVD.

Rory McIlroy has never even seen Fota Island, let alone played it. But if the hard work of organisers is anything to go by, he and his fellow players will be wowed not only by the three championship golf courses set in beautiful parkland, but also by the structures in place to make this week’s Irish Open one of the best ever.

Just gone ‘sale agreed’ with DTZ Sherry FitzGerald is the site of the former Crow’s Nest bar in Cork’s western suburbs, at Victoria Cross, near UCC, County Hall, and the Kingsley Hotel.

The countdown officially commenced at Fota Island Resort yesterday as former champion Shane Lowry gave his seal of approval to the 2014 Irish Open venue.

The Fota Island Resort has revealed its new owners, the Kang family, have invested €500,000 in bringing the Irish Open golf tournament to Cork — and Julie Kang has been one of the driving forces behind the event.

More than 180 hotel jobs in Tipperary and Cork have been secured with the sales of two well-known county hotels, The Anner, in Thurles, and the Midleton Park Hotel, in Cork.

Ahn Myong-Chol witnessed many horrors as a North Korean prison camp guard, but few haunt him like the image of guard dogs attacking schoolchildren and tearing them to pieces.

An entrepreneurial Irish property broker has made a move into the Chinese market, opening an office in Shanghai to lure cash-rich Chinese buyers to European purchases.

Back in the mid-2000s, a site for an hotel was put to market in Cork’s Ballincollig, with €7m sought for a 100-bed hotel (never built) on 5.5 acres.

Golf’s European Tour will today confirm Fota Island resort in Cork as the home of the 2014 Irish Open.

Cork’s Fota Island resort is closing in on a deal to bring the Irish Open back to Munster next June.

A snow-coveredforest, magic fairydust — and real life husky puppies. Welcome to Santa’s grotto, Franc-style.

A second multi-million euro hotel swoop by Chinese buyers has been made on the flood-ravaged Kingsley Hotel in Cork City.

Fota Island in Cork is back in the frame to host next year’s Irish Open.

Rory McIlroy shot a final-round 67 to claim a share of second place at the Kolon Korea Open.

The new owners of Fota Island Resort are planning on investing millions of euro developing the grounds of the hotel, adding a destination restaurant, and bringing an international golf tournament back to Cork.

Bidders for the jewel in Cork’s €20m tourism crown came from India, Taiwan, the US, Europe, China, and Cork — with a Chinese family, the Kangs, yesterday coming up trumps.

Last week, Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to the big screen with a bang, demonstrating that he has no intention of growing old gracefully.

England's Mark Foster and Spaniard Ignacio Garrido, who have played more than 450 European Tour events between them since their last wins in 2003, will go head to head to try to change that at Gleneagles tomorrow.

Tiger Woods admitted he could have done more on the par five holes on the Torrey Pines North Course after firing a bogey-free round of 69 to open his season in the Farmers Insurance Open in California.

Rory McIlroy found his form to power up the UBS Hong Kong Open leaderboard in the closing stages of the second round today.

Anthony Kang shot the best round of the UBS Hong Kong Open so far with a nine-under-par 61 giving the American the clubhouse lead midway through the second round.

Adam Scott closed in on the Singapore Open title after the Australian established a three-shot lead at Sentosa Golf Club but a weather disruption of five and a half hours means the European Tour event will not be decided until tomorrow morning.

Play in the final round of the Barclays Singapore Open was delayed this morning due to thunderstorms.

Adam Scott will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Singapore Open but the Australian will have defending champion Ian Poulter hot on his heels.

Thongchai Jaidee has won the Ballantine’s Championship following a play-off after the tournament at Jeju Island’s Pinx Golf Club ended in a three-way tie.

Mark Brown shot a seven-under-par 65 to hold a one-shot lead over early morning pace setter Kang Kyung-nam as the Ballantine’s Championship got under way at the Pinx Golf Club on Jeju Island today, but there was a poor start for 2008 winner Graeme McDowell.