Singer Taylor Swift has topped this year’s Forbes list of the world’s 100 highest paid celebrities, earning $170m (€153m) mainly thanks to her hugely successful 1989 world tour.

Aidan O’Brien and Seamus Heffernan continued in sparkling early-season form when sharing a double with 5/6 favourites Housesofparliament and Long Island Sound in Dundalk last night.

The number of tigers in the wild have increased for the first time after decades of decline, conservationists have said.

The Dermot Weld-trained Harzand earned quotes ranging from 16/1 to 25/1 for the Investec Derby in Epsom following his workmanlike victory in the Group 3 P W McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes in Leopardstown yesterday.

Your guide to tonight's television.

The race is on to see what will follow ROG, Bressie and Zedward as the name to be bestowed on the latest arrival at one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.

A scientist at Oxford University believes he's found the origin of the Yeti myth – the abominable snowman of the Himalayas – based on DNA evidence.

Drew Barrymore wants to focus on her family instead of working so much.

Tests on hair samples were found to have a genetic match with an ancient polar bear, with scientists believing there could be a sub-species of brown bear in the High Himalayas that has been mistaken for the mythical beast.

It might not entitle you anything, but new figures show 2,200 people have secured a Certificate of Irishness — including people resident in Bhutan and American Samoa.

As the Obamas and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth can all testify, Irish people are still considered to be among the friendliest in the world.

The number of tigers in Nepal has increased to almost 200, a survey of the endangered animal has revealed.

The Gurkha’s Daughter

Three years after drug agents searched a suspected “pill mill” at a West Philadelphia clinic, an abortion doctor, accused of killing newborn babies with scissors, is going on trial on eight counts of murder.

Jonathan Wilson examines what lies in store for Trap and his team in Astana tomorrow night

Northern India’s power grid crashed, halting hundreds of trains, forcing hospitals and airports to use back-up generators, and leaving 370m sweltering in the summer heat.

Hundreds of world landmarks from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to the Great Wall of China went dark last night, part of a global effort to highlight climate change.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has asked for talks with Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff next week as concerns grow about the collapse in the relationship between the organisation and the 2014 World Cup hosts.

Described as having “flowers like inward-facing white clouds with purple spots and a centre the colour of the setting sun“, the tree peony sold as ‘Joseph Rock’ still commands attention and admiration.

Garret Campbell tells Denise Hall about the success of his organisation’s project sending Irish teachers to remote parts of India

Suspected rebels sprayed bullets on a bus carrying Indian paramilitary soldiers in a remote forest area in the north-east, killing eight and wounding another 11 soldiers, police said today.

Somalia is the most corrupt country in the world, followed by Afghanistan, Burma and Iraq, an international watchdog said today.

The world’s tiger population is on the verge of extinction, Nepal’s forest secretary has warned a conference of experts.

A 6.3-MAGNITUDE earthquake shook the remote mountain nation of Bhutan, killing at least seven people when their houses collapsed and damaging buildings across the region, officials said.

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook the remote mountain nation of Bhutan today, killing at least seven people when their houses collapsed and damaging buildings across the region, officials said.

A FLYING frog, the world’s smallest deer and the first new monkey to be found in over a century are among 350 new species discovered in the eastern Himalayas in the past decade, the (World Wildlife Fund) WWF has said.

The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century pitched a swathe of Asia from India to China into near darkness today as millions gathered to watch the phenomenon.

HORDES of scientists, students and nature enthusiasts prepared yesterday for the longest total solar eclipse of this century, while millions planned to shutter themselves indoors, giving in to superstitious myths about the phenomenon.

The World Health Organisation began to ship 2.4 million treatments of anti-flu drugs to 72 needy countries today, and its flu chief said the swine flu epidemic was still spreading.

The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan crowned its fifth king in an elaborate Buddhist ceremony.

The death toll in the bombings in north-eastern India rose to at least 76 today as officials said local militants may have been helped by other terrorist groups to carry out the attacks.

Senior officials say 48 people are dead and more than 300 injured following 13 serial blasts that ripped through cities across India’s north-eastern state of Assam.

At least 13 blasts ripped through cities across India’s north-eastern state of Assam today, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens more, police and witnesses said.

The death toll from a bomb explosion outside a police training centre in remote northeast India has risen to 17 after three more wounded succumbed to their injuries overnight, police said today.

Thousands of Bhutanese are voting today to elect a National Council, the final stage before democratic elections that will end nearly 100 years of absolute monarchy in the secluded Himalayan country.

AUTHORITIES in India are to investigate claims by terrified villagers that Bigfoot-type hairy giants are roaming the jungles of the remote north-east, a local official said.

Pop superstar Madonna has poked fun at her diva reputation by joking that she's more stubborn than a terrorist.

The king of the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan has declared that he will step down as ruler and hold the country’s first national democratic elections in 2008, state media reported today.

The World Health Organisation and health ministers from 11 Asian nations today agreed on measures to improve their joint response if a region-wide natural disaster occurs, following last year’s devastating tsunami.

OVER the next decade, two million children will die, 40 million people will be without safe drinking water, and five million children will be forced out of school if current trends continue in 14 countries across Asia and the Pacific that are among the world’s least developed, a UN report said yesterday.

Over the next decade, two million children will die, 40 million people will be without safe drinking water, and five million children will be forced out of school if current trends continue in 14 countries across Asia and the Pacific that are among the world’s least developed, a UN report said today.