From the main course to the pudding, wine columnist Leslie Williams has the perfect drinks list for the festive season 

AN explosion in a furnace at the Marcoule nuclear waste treatment site in southern France yesterday killed one person, but there was no leak of radioactive material outside the site, officials said.

AIB League champions Garryowen will travel to France to represent Ireland in the Languedoc-Roussillon amateur international rugby tournament, which is taking place from September 3-15.

Torrential rains that battered southeastern France have killed at least 20 people and rescuers are searching for at least another dozen missing people.

Torrential rains that battered southeast France for two days subsided today, letting authorities assess the damage from floods that submerged villages and killed at least 16 people.