International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has his expressed confidence over the financial implications of hosting the 2022 Winter Games after formally declaring the three candidate cities in Lausanne on Monday.

Simona Halep extended her impressive grand slam form by showing a cool head on a hot Wimbledon day to reach the quarter-finals.

World silver medallist and 2013 European middleweight champion Jason Quigley has made his long awaited move into professional boxing.

Russian southpaw Sofya Ochigava is looking sharp ahead of June’s European Elite Women’s Championships in Romania, according to Irish coach Antionette Faye.

Irish middleweight Jason Quigley will move into a top four position in the AIBA rankings before Christmas to cap a year in which he has won European gold and World silver.

Ireland's World Amateur Boxing Championship medallists Jason Quigley and Joe Ward returned to a tremendous welcome at Dublin Airport shortly after 12.15 this afternoon.

Irish middleweight Jason Quigley has vowed to win gold at the AIBA World Elite Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan this morning.

Irish boxing wants to put the “bronze age” behind it at the AIBA World Men’s Elite Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Wednesday morning in a café in Portlaoise and Gordon Matthews, general manager for Rugby League Ireland, is responding to a query as to why people in this country should pay heed to the code’s World Cup which starts tomorrow and sees Ireland taking on Fiji, England and Australia in the obligatory group of death.

John Joe Nevin believes more of Ireland’s world-class amateur boxers will inevitably follow him into the paid boxing ranks, but not because of anything he may achieve in a career which was mapped out in considerable detail in Dublin yesterday.

Five Irish boxers will each be fighting for at least a bronze medal at the AIBA World Elite Men’s Championships in Kazakhstan today.

Joe Ward could meet Russia’s Nikita Ivanov in a repeat of their European final in the last-eight of the AIBA World Elite Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Two-time Olympic medallist Paddy Barnes edged a step closer to the medals at the AIBA World Elite Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan yesterday.

Irish welterweight Adam Nolan controversially crashed out of the AIBA World Elite Championships at the last-64 stage despite ending up with more points than his opponent yesterday.

Former European champion Ray Moylette bounced back after being wobbled by Alexandros Tsanikidis in yesterday’s AIBA World Elite Championships clash in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Tommy McCarthy got Ireland’s World Elite Championships campaign underway with a unanimous decision over Nikolay Mutavski in Kazakhstan yesterday.

Kaliningrad. Scezezin. Minsk. And now Almaty.

Billy Walsh insists that boxing’s high-performance unit has the strength in depth to survive the loss of John Joe Nevin to the professional ranks — and Michael Conlan too, if it comes to that.

Katie Taylor has revealed she is again “flirting” with the idea of turning professional — and the 2012 Olympic gold medallist may well be joined in the paid boxing ranks by Michael Conlon, who claimed a bronze in London last year.

An Irish flight school has signed a multi-million euro contract to train pilots for one of the top airlines in Central Asia and India.

Former teachers of one of the students from Kazakhstan arrested in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings have described him as an easygoing teenager who distinguished himself mainly by his failing grades in maths and science.

Talks between Iran and a group of six nations over fears that Tehran’s nuclear programme might be used to make weapons appeared to run into trouble shortly after they began.

Six nations have started talks with Iran in an attempt to satisfy both Tehran’s demands for international recognition of its right to advanced nuclear technology and world concerns that the Islamic Republic wants to misuse that expertise to make atomic arms.

Twenty people are feared dead after a passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan’s principal city, Almaty, today.

Assured of a bronze medal, John Joe Nevin will try to cash it in for silver, at least, this afternoon (2pm) when he meets the world’s number one bantamweight, Lazaro Alvarez, in the Olympic semi-finals at the ExCel.

Adam Nolan has savoured it already, but this will be young Michael Conlan’s first taste of the unique Olympic atmosphere when he joins the Wexford man on tonight’s bill at the ExCel, with the Irish camp bidding to get back on the winning trail after yesterday’s first boxing loss.

IRELAND’S U17s face a cauldron of noise at the Tsentralniy Stadium in Almaty today (2pm) when 5,000 fans will be backing Kazakhstan’s bid to usurp John Morling’s side in their bid for UEFA U19 qualification.

BEFORE St Patrick’s Athletic even take to the field against Shakhtar Karagandy today (2pm Irish time), they will have felt like they’ve endured an entire Europa League campaign – let alone a mere qualifier.

Why did a hauntingly beautiful 20-year-old supermodel kill herself? Filmmaker Peter Pomerantsev describes his three-year quest for clues, and answers

A fire at a drug treatment centre in Kazakhstan with a history of safety violations killed 37 people as patients tried to escape through barred windows, officials said today.

VisitScotland has launched its first Kitchen Garden Trail, encouraging Irish visitors to stay in establishments that serve produce direct from their own gardens.

FABIO CAPELLO has rejected the theory that England’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra tonight is a pointless exercise.

ITALY coach Marcelo Lippi will give young Inter Milan defender Davide Santon his senior international debut against Northern Ireland tonight after admitting to being impressed with him in training.

England midfielder Gareth Barry was due to resume training today ahead of the World Cup qualifier with Kazhakstan in Almaty.

Bolton defender Gary Cahill has received a England shock call-up after Rio Ferdinand was ruled out of the World Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan.

England defenders Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole missed training today as a precaution ahead of the trip to Kazakhstan for their World Cup qualifier.

Robert Green is set to be handed his first England start in Kazakhstan next month.

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.

Beijing tightened security today ahead of the Olympic torch’s arrival after demonstrations by protesters during its passage through Greece.

IRISH firms are to travel on a business trip to Kazakhstan — famously lampooned as a Third World backwater by comic character, Borat.

Irish firms are to travel on a business trip to Kazakhstan – famously lampooned as a Third World backwater by comic character Borat.

Borat-inspired UK animal rights activists clad in lettuce-leave bikinis braved the winter chill in the Kazakh commercial capital Almaty today, urging Kazakhs to stop eating horse meat and turn vegetarian.

BORAT beware: Accept an invitation by a top Kazakh official to discover what the country is really like and you could be in for a nasty surprise.

At least 15 people were killed when a bus was in collision with a truck in central Kazakhstan early today.