Donnacha Ryan will join Ronan O’Gara as part of Racing 92’s contingent bidding to conquer fortress Thomond Park in Munster’s first home European fixture of the season, which was announced yesterday.

Blood donors are being encouraged to keep their appointments to give blood following the explosion at a concert in Manchester.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has denied the Government tried to bury the O’Higgins report to limit its political damage, despite publishing it on the same day as the programme for government and as she left the country.

Greece is pressing ahead with plans to start deporting migrants and refugees back to Turkey next week, despite mounting concern from the UN and human rights organisations that Syrians could be denied proper protection.

Bertram Allen won three cars in Sweden a fortnight ago, but he knows he will require a Rolls Royce performance this weekend at the Geneva, Switzerland, this weekend if he is to drive off with any of the riches on offer.

Dermott Lennon placed second in the World Cup qualifier in Toronto, Canada, a fortnight ago with Loughview Lou Lou.

Show jumper Richie Moloney is considering a shot at the World Cup final following his qualifier victory in North Salem, New York on Sunday.

An end to the ebola epidemic in West Africa may be in sight after results from a fast-tracked vaccine trial were described as “hugely important” and “very exciting” by experts.

Europe is heading for an unprecedented explosion in rates of obesity and excess weight with Ireland at the forefront of the trend, say researchers.

A new study has put Dublin as the best place in Europe - and second in the entire world - for US citizens to live in.

Denis Lynch was the top Irish earning show jumper at the weekend, scoring a second place in Saturday’s Longines Grand Prix in La Coruna, Spain, with All Star 5 to pocket €100,000.

Consideration is been given to staging show jumping at a number of greyhound stadia next year.

The Canadian government is to start shipping its experimental Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organisation on Monday for possible use in the West African countries hardest hit by the outbreak.

Iraq’s parliament has officially named Haider Abadi the country’s new prime minister and approved most of his proposed cabinet.

Irish research influenced key recommendations in the World Health Organisation’s first global report calling for more suicide prevention strategies.

Spain has imported a US-made experimental drug to treat a Spanish missionary priest who was evacuated from Liberia last week after testing positive for Ebola.

It was a notable weekend for Irish athletics with Thomas Barr and Mark English enjoying the perfect build-up to the European Championships with some stunning displays.

Russia's foreign minister has justified the use of Russian troops streaming into neighbouring Ukraine's Crimea region as a necessary protection for his country's citizens living there.

Ukraine’s United Nations ambassador has asked an emergency session of the world body’s Security Council “to do everything possible now” to stop Russian “aggression” as troops took over the strategic Crimea region.

Syria’s foreign minister has accused America of trying to create a “negative climate” at the second round of peace talks as US secretary of state John Kerry blamed “the Assad regime’s obstruction” for making the tense dialogue even more difficult.

Pope Benedict XVI defrocked nearly 400 priests in two years for molesting children, a document obtained by the Associated Press shows.

The Vatican has acknowledged that there can be “no excuse” for child abuse, confronted for the first time at length and in public over the global priest sex abuse scandal.

Dermott Lennon is paying a high price for being in Geneva, Switzerland, this weekend... missing out on his children’s nativity play.

US secretary of state John Kerry is flying to Geneva, Switzerland, to join six world powers for talks on Iran’s nuclear programmes, in a last-minute decision that suggests a deal could be imminent.

Iran’s United Nations ambassador has called nuclear weapons the greatest threat to present and future generations, days before Tehran resumes talks with six world powers aimed at reining in its suspect nuclear programme.

The Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Professor Peter Higgs, has said he plans to retire next year at the age of 85.

Professor Peter Higgs, the scientist who gave his name to the Higgs boson particle, says he is “overwhelmed” to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Syria’s president Bashar Assad says his government will abide by the UN resolution calling for the country’s chemical weapons programme to be dismantled and destroyed.

Tough-talking John Kerry opened swiftly-convened talks on Syria’s chemical weapons by bluntly rejecting the country’s pledge to begin a “standard process” by turning over information rather than weapons – and nothing immediately.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has rejected Syrian President Bashar Assad’s suggestion that he will begin submitting data on his chemical weapons arsenal one month after signing an international chemical weapons ban.

Scientists have embarked on one of the strangest experiments ever — to see whether atoms of exotic antimatter fall up instead of down.

Lawyers for Sean Dunne and his wife, Gayle Killilea-Dunne, failed in their bid yesterday to prevent Nama’s legal team from adding an expert attorney on fraudulent transfers during a hearing at Stamford Superior Court.

International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid will on Monday reveal the world governing body’s response to the United States Anti-doping Agency’s scathing Lance Armstrong report.

Photographers crowded round today as the curtain was pulled back to present what is claimed to be an early version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Brad Pitt has spent £250,000 (€315,000) on one of the world's most expensive watches as a wedding present for fiancée Angelina Jolie.

Syria envoy Kofi Annan has warned that if nations trying to end the country’s violence fail to act they face an international crisis of “grave severity”.

Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has welcomed steps by the international community to reach out to her country long isolated because of its military dictatorship.

A deadline for a United Nations-brokered ceasefire passed today without reports of major violence, opposition activists said, hours after Syria promised to observe a halt in fighting.

Experts have warned a similar disaster to the Honduras prison fire could happen again in Central America.

SHOW JUMPER Denis Lynch is practically assured of a place in the Rolex World Cup final after finishing ninth in Geneva, Switzerland, yesterday.

IT IS almost certain that Sports Minister Leo Varadkar will move to ensure a fixed term will apply to the position of Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) chairman after it was brought to his attention that none exists.