A wealthy Thai businessman with an impressive portfolio of Asian golf properties is one of the favourites to become the new owner of the prestigious Fota Island Resort in Cork, with a sale expected to go through this month.

A British housewife could face the death penalty after being arrested over a €2m cocaine haul on a tropical island.

When crafting a follow-up to the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time, it's understandable that one might be reticent to mess with a winning formula.

Bradley Cooper has praised Mike Tyson for being "very funny" in 'The Hangover: Part II'.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally walked to freedom today amid massive cheers from elated supporters who flooded the streets outside her home in Burma.

David Carradine’s widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit today against a French company handling the actor’s last film, claiming it failed to provide proper protection.

American John Yettaw said he had no regrets about taking a secret swim to the home of Burma's detained democracy leader - a decision that landed them both in prison.

A US man sentenced to seven years in jail for sneaking into the home of detained Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was handed over to an American consular official today to be flown out of the country.

Hundreds gathered to pay tribute to Kung Fu actor David Carradine at a sprawling Los Angeles hillside cemetery in a funeral attended by family, former co-stars and other Hollywood friends.

David Carradine's family fear he was murdered to silence his investigation into deadly underground martial arts organisations.

Moviemaker Martin Scorsese and actor Michael Madsen have paid tribute to David Carradine, who died on Thursday.

A British woman facing trial in Laos for alleged heroin trafficking secretly impregnated herself with the sperm of another prisoner in a bid to escape the death sentence, a government-run newspaper said today.

Singer Gary Glitter has finally agreed today to leave Thailand and return to the UK, Thai police said.

Wesley Snipes has been granted permission to leave the US to work abroad.

UN helicopters fanned out across Burma’s devastated Irrawaddy Delta for the first time today, ferrying critical supplies to villages which have been struggling to survive since the May 2-3 cyclone, an official said.

AUSTRALIAN police have sought the extradition of an Irishman alleged to be part of a gang that planned to manufacture about €74m worth of crystal methamphetamine.

Burma’s military regime, already under fire for blocking international aid to cyclone victims, is expected to decide today whether to extend the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi or set her free.

Foreign aid agencies urged Burma's junta today urgently to clarify rules for operating in the country's cyclone-devastated areas, after the regime promised to open its doors to the international community.

A senior UN envoy headed for Burma today to plead with its military junta to accept more international aid for cyclone survivors, amid mounting fears of starvation, especially among children.

The official death toll from Burma's killer cyclone nearly doubled to 78,000 today as aid workers shackled by the country's uncooperative military regime struggled to get even the most basic data about the needs of up to 2.5 million desperate survivors.

Burma’s military regime distributed international aid today but plastered the boxes with names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week’s devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

Burma’s isolationist military regime gave the go-ahead for the first major airlift of international aid into the country today, while dragging its feet on urgently requested visas by foreign agencies several days after a devastating cyclone.

Burma's state media said last weekend's cyclone killed some 10,000 people in one town alone, raising fears of a big rise in the overall death toll today, as the international community prepared to rush aid to the nation.

A BURMA state radio station yesterday said close to 4,000 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others are unaccounted for in a single town after the devastating Tropical Cyclone Nargis swept through.

UN and private aid agencies today raced to prepare aid for victims of the devastating cyclone in Burma, but were awaiting a go-ahead from the ruling junta.

From the Sydney Opera House to Rome’s Colosseum to the Sears Tower’s famous antennas in Chicago, floodlit symbols of civilisation went dark for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

FOR the second time in a little more than a decade, Cork is to host a world debating championship.

A United Nations investigator said today his five-day mission to Burma had enabled him to determine the number of people killed and detained in the government’s brutal crackdown on protesters.

Cambodian police detained the ex-foreign minister of the brutal 1970s Khmer Rouge regime and his wife and took them to a UN-backed genocide tribunal to face charges.

A day of global protests against Burma’s junta began in cities across Asia today, after the military regime admitted detaining hundreds of Buddhist monks when troops turned their guns on pro-democracy demonstrators last week.

International delegates have reached an agreement on the best ways to combat climate change, despite efforts by China to water down language on cutting destructive greenhouse gas emissions.

A group of US media organisations have asked a Colorado judge to make public the arrest warrant and other documents involving JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Karr.

For a moment, it seemed the decade-old mystery surrounding the slaying of a child beauty queen had been solved. But authorities have cautioned against rushing to judge the schoolteacher who made a stunning confession that he killed JonBenet Ramsey.

MOST Americans knew JonBenet Ramsey only in death — as the blonde-haired little girl in the pink cowgirl outfit, bouncing across the stage with a million-dollar smile.

Along with his iconic character Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone is bringing back another one of his most famous characters - former Green Beret John Rambo.

Disgraced British glam rocker Gary Glitter will have his appeal heard next month against a three-year sentence for child molestation, a court official said today.

Vietnam has postponed the appeals trial of disgraced rocker Gary Glitter until early June.

Bird flu in Burma is more serious than originally thought, with 100 outbreaks detected in the country since the deadly avian virus was first confirmed last month, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency said today.

THE CYNICS have already dismissed next weekend's inaugural $1.5 million (€1.2 million) Royal Trophy contest between Asia and Europe as nothing more than another glorified exhibition match.

Pop paedophile Gary Glitter is to be held by police for a further six days - despite the star's vehement denial that he had underage sex with two girls in Vietnam.

The US met North Korea yesterday on halting its nuclear weapons programme and withdrew a threat to try to punish the North Koreans soon with UN sanctions.

Two British men were arrested at Athens International Airport after allegedly using fake credit cards to withdraw money from an ATM, Greek police said tonight.

China’s landmark trade agreement with Southeast Asian leaders is the latest example of how the communist giant is claiming a growing role in a region long dominated by the United States.