Ebola was blamed for more than 11,000 deaths in west Africa during 2013-16.

Two United Nations officials, one American and one Swedish, have been kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the government said.

An Angolan national who got refugee status to live in Ireland went on to claim over €50,000 in social welfare to which he was not entitled because he was working.

Almost 60m people worldwide were forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution at the end of last year, the highest ever recorded number, the UN refugee agency said.

Yoruba, Cebuano, Lingala, Iloko, and Tagalog are some of the obscure, exotic, and far-flung languages spoken by those accused of offences before the courts here last year.

SPRING is galloping on. It’s now the second week of May, the week in the year when gardeners in the cold Midlands, where I live, wonder whether the danger of night frosts has passed or if one morning they’ll find the potato shoots have blackened and that they planted out the French bean seedlings a few days too early. 

Apple chief Tim Cook is “deeply offended” by allegations made in BBC’s Panorama that the technology giant mistreats workers at its Chinese factories.

Four people with fever considered at risk for ebola were being tested in Spain yesterday for the virus, including one who arrived on an Air France jet that was isolated at Madrid’s airport as a precaution, officials said.

The Government has announced €1m in funding to tackle violence against women and girls during conflicts or natural disasters.

Ireland has been named as a "destination, source, and transit country" for people being trafficked for sexual and labour exploitation in a new US State Department report.

At least 68 elephants – about 4% of the population of one of Africa’s oldest parks – have been slaughtered by poachers over the last two months using chainsaws and helicopters, the non-profit group managing the park has warned.

MORALITY is the glue which binds society together. Without each individual’s sense of fair play, empathy and abhorrence of unnecessary violence, we could never co-operate. But when and how did these propensities develop?

Midleton man Mark O’Riordan tells Caroline Delaney about his life at a Congo chimp sanctuary.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has described as “grossly misleading” a correlation between the lives endured by residents of the Magdalene laundries and the thousands of asylum seekers currently living in direct provision centres.

The UN chief says African warlord Joseph Kony’s militia group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, killed 39 civilians this year in the Congo and the Central African Republic.

A couple are facing life sentences after being found guilty of murdering a teenage boy they accused of witchcraft.

THE Minister for Justice has confirmed that 12 Congolese and eight Nigerians on board a deportation flight costing €337,800 last July remain in Ireland.

London: Diageo, the maker of Guinness and Bushmills whiskey, said sales from Africa and Latin America will probably double over the next five years as it increases investment and local production.

THE great Muhammad Ali clinched his latest title when he was declared the first honorary freeman of Ennis.

CHILDREN as young as four are being raped by rebels in the Congo, according to a shocking survey by Oxfam Ireland.

Ben Affleck has teamed up with Mick Jagger to launch a short film highlighting the plight of families in

FIRST it was Finance Minister Brian lashing out at RTÉ Radio’s Joe Duffy for allowing callers to discuss the possibility of the banks collapsing.

The Government wants more recruits for its international disaster response unit.

An overnight train accident killed dozens in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a radio station reported today.

Ex-rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba is being allowed to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo to seek medical treatment in Portugal.

Zimbabwe’s presidential spokesman called on African leaders not to punish him for the country’s troubles, repeating Robert Mugabe’s charges that the West was to blame.

FORMER President Mary Robinson has appealed to the Irish public to champion the protection of women in the developing world from an increasing wave of rape and violence.

The European Union plans to pull its peacekeepers out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on schedule, despite heightened tension over the upcoming results of key elections, senior officials said today.

UN troops in armoured vehicles are standing guard at the site of a three-day gun battle that broke out between forces loyal to president Joseph Kabila and a former rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Electoral officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) backed by riot police faced down stone-throwing boycotters to allow voters a second chance, underlining the challenge to democracy in Africa: keeping ethnic, regional and political disputes from reigniting into war.

Three main militia groups in a strife-torn eastern province have agreed to lay down arms and allow free passage of voters during the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s historic elections, the United Nations said today.

French President Jacques Chirac underlined the importance of close Franco-German co-operation today as German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted much of his government in Berlin for talks ahead of next week’s European Union summit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was to welcome French President Jacques Chirac and members of his government to Berlin today for talks ahead of next week’s European Union summit.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in South Africa today at the start of a two-week tour of five African nations.

A POWERFUL earthquake toppled homes onto children in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today, killing at least two people in a region already beset by war, poverty and volcanoes.

A powerful earthquake toppled homes onto children in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today, killing at least two people in a region already beset by war, poverty and volcanoes.

Twenty-six people were missing and feared dead today after a plane crashed in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an aviation official said.

THESE are dangerous days for people in the east of The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Sexual violence against women is taking place “on a massive scale” in wars and in countries emerging from conflict and the international response remains inadequate, one of the UN’s highest-ranking women told the UN Security Council.

RECENT reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch detail atrocities in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which include rape, torture and the widespread use of child soldiers.

AMNESTY International has urged the government to use its presidency of the European Union to stamp out the widespread proliferation of small arms which kill one person around the world every minute.

REFUGEE groups last night expressed concern that asylum seekers can be held in prison for up to 21 days from Monday following changes to the law.

THE Irish Refugee Council’s report on separated children seeking asylum in Ireland is an indictment of our bureaucracy.