Bordeaux may have to prepare for another Irish invasion.

North Korea has fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean - the second such test in recent weeks.

Mid-West Correspondent Jimmy Woulfe tells how the proposed Foynes-Limerick road scheme may, after years of frustration, offer relief of a bypass for the town Adare.

JP O’ Malley speaks with Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran about the increasing dangers in Turkish society.

A 44-year-old woman who has been on hunger strike for nearly 16 years in protest at alleged brutality by India's military has said she will end her fast and run in state elections.

Today, May 26

A Cumann na mBan courier was involved in a daring but unsuccessful attempt to deliver a key message to the local Irish Volunteers command on Easter weekend, writes Niall Murray

This is the first time that we have come together to present a ‘unified voice for West Cork Business’ and this should be viewed as a barometer of the strength of feeling and collective positivity that exists in relation to establishing Cork Airport as a driver for economic success in our region now and into the future.

Mid-West Correspondent

A Syrian oil refinery held by the Islamic State group has been hit in air strikes by the US-led coalition, according to activists.

Clermont Auvergne 26 Munster 19

Clermont 26 Munster 19

Islamic State fighters backed by tanks and artillery have pushed into an embattled Syrian town on the border with Turkey, sparking heavy street battles with the town’s Kurdish defenders.

Petro Poroshenko has taken the oath of office as Ukraine’s president, assuming leadership of a country mired in a violent uprising and economic troubles.

SHE has always wanted to meet a princess and last September, Mairéad Sparkes’s dream came true.

A triple bombing struck the funeral of the son of an anti-al-Qaeda tribal leader north-east of Baghdad on Sunday, one of several attacks across the country that left 14 people dead, Iraqi officials said.

AS I MENTIONED last week average wine prices have not increased all that much, despite the recent Budget changes.

“Every game is an All-Ireland” is Kilkenny captain Brian Kennedy’s mantra as he leads the county into this evening’s Bord Gais Energy Leinster U21 final against Wexford at Wexford Park (7.30pm).

Syrian government troops battled rebels in several areas outside Damascus today while regime warplanes bombed opposition-held areas around the capital, including an airstrike on one village that killed at least seven people, activists said.

Four houses built as part of a Traveller accommodation programme, which were already refurbished following previous arson and vandalism attacks, have been targeted again.

Limerick criminal Christy O’Donnell’s latest escapade may earn him a place in penal folklore.

Another new road race is added to the ever-expanding calendar tomorrow when the Bride 10km run, organised by the local Bride Rovers GAA club, takes places at Rathcormac, Co Cork.

The death toll from landslides that buried homes in an eastern district of Uganda has risen to 40.

The death toll in Japan’s north-eastern Miyagi prefecture alone is likely to exceed 10,000 in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, local police said today.

O’Loughlin Gaels (Kilkenny) 0-14 Oulart-The-Ballagh (Wexford) 1-8

A small blast has broken windows at a hotel near where the World Economic Forum is taking place in Davos, Switzerland.

CAMOGIE President Joan O’Flynn is confident the decision to hold their All-Ireland club finals in Croke Park next March will be vindicated.

Three people have been arrested after a man in his 60s was stabbed in Limerick last night.

Fianna Fáil TD Mary O'Rourke said today that she believes Brian Cowen will remain leader of the party.

Iraqis voted today in an election testing the mettle of the country’s still-fragile democracy as insurgents killed eight people across the capital with a barrage of mortars intent on disrupting the day.

Results on the final day of the Vivendi Trophy with Seve Ballesteros, Continental Europe v Great Britain and Ireland, St-Nom la Breteche, Paris, France

Thirty staff at the Coca-Cola warehouse on the Carrigrohane Road in Cork are set to strike tomorrow morning.

A 35-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Jean Quigley in Derry last month.

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr issued a “final warning” to the Iraqi government to halt the US-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare “open war until liberation”.

India’s football captain Bhaichung Bhutia has refused to carry the Beijing Olympic torch during its run in the capital New Delhi later this month in protest at Chinese authorities’ crackdown on protests in Tibet.

Birmingham striker Mikael Forssell is hoping his future can be resolved before the end of the season.

A suicide car bomber flattened a restaurant in a busy market in the Shiite holy city of Kufa this morning, killing at least 16 people and wounding 70 in an attack sure to further enflame tensions between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite populations.

A number of people were killed in a shooting at a one-room Amish schoolhouse today, including the gunman, Pennsylvania state police said.

Israeli warplanes staged a series of raids in northern, eastern and southern Lebanon early today, targeting suspected Hezbollah hideouts, striking a Lebanese army base and destroying roads, Lebanese security officials said.

Hezbollah fighters battled to stop Israeli forces from capturing the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbail today, with the guerrilla group’s TV station reporting one Israeli soldier killed and five wounded.

The US ambassador in charge of counterterrorism said today that parts of Pakistan are a “safe haven” for militants and that Osama bin Laden was more likely to be hiding there than in Afghanistan.