… and that answer is no. No, they're really not.

Equestrian: Lady luck is capricious, as show jumper Cameron Hanley will attest.

University College Cork has been nominated for the 2014 European Business Award for the Environment.

A 24-year-old Japanese businessman who has 16 surrogate babies and an alleged desire to father hundreds more is under investigation.

David Cameron has issued a fresh warning to Russia that it faces international isolation if it continues to interfere in Ukraine.

Daniel Coyle clinched his third successive HSI/Connolly’s Red Mills Spring Tour title yesterday when seventh with Uptown Girl in the final at Coilog Equestrian Centre, Co Kildare.

Having fallen out of contention, Billy Twomey yesterday pulled out of the World Cup final citing Tinka’s Serenade age.

Active women can reduce their risk of breast cancer by up to 12%, researchers have said.

The issue of divorce is stoking a spirited debate between Catholic cardinals and revealing the challenges and expectations for Pope Francis after his promises to put the Church more in touch with modern life.

Vodka is a major cause of early death in Russia and has a direct impact on mortality rates in men, research has shown.

People who take vitamin D supplements in the belief that they protect against heart disease and cancer may be wasting their time, a study suggests.

Billy Twomey believes his new acquisition, Codarco, has the talent to go all the way, including “possibly” to the Olympics, but he will be taking it one step at a time.

Bord Bia’s Bernadette Byrne has been awarded a prestigious honour by the l’Académie Culinaire de France for her work promoting Irish beef.

Doha in Qatar will stage the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships, the International Paralympic Committee has announced.

Tougher actions are needed to reduce the use of sunbeds, researchers said after a study found that the risk of skin cancer increases by 20% for people who use the tanning devices.

Ireland is seriously lagging behind most other countries in offering live-saving treatments provided by the use of adult stem cells, a leading international medical expert has warned.

The advances made in medicine over the past century and a half have been phenomenal.

Twenty-five suspected members of the Anonymous hacker movement have been arrested in police raids across Europe and South America.

Mobile phone users could be increasing their chances of developing brain cancer, experts have warned.

A RESPECTED international panel of experts said mobile phones are possible cancer-causing agents, putting them in the same category as the pesticide DDT, petrol engine exhaust and coffee.

Interpol has placed the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks on its most-wanted list after Sweden issued an arrest warrant against him as part of a drawn-out rape investigation.

PAKISTAN has asked Interpol to issue a global alert for 13 suspects wanted for the attacks in Mumbai of November 2008, the international police agency said in Lyon, France, yesterday.

Interpol today issued a global alert for 13 suspects wanted by Pakistan in its investigation into last year’s Mumbai massacre that left 166 people dead.

OSCAR-WINNING composer Maurice Jarre, who captured the majesty of the desert in his music for Lawrence of Arabia and wrote the haunting Lara’s Theme in his score for Doctor Zhivago, has died.

POLICE in Cyprus have arrested a man from Montenegro believed to belong to a gang of international jewel thieves dubbed the ‘Pink Panthers’ that is suspected of carrying out high-profile thefts around the globe, the international police organisation Interpol said yesterday.

Ireland and the UK dominate a European list of top castle hotels.

Interpol said today that it has received more than 200 leads in 24 hours following a worldwide public appeal for help in identifying a man seen sexually abusing young South East Asian boys in photos posted on the internet.

Interpol launched a worldwide appeal to the public today to help identify a man suspected of sexually abusing young boys from Southeast Asia - images of whom were spread through the internet.

Protests along the Olympic torch relay route and reports of foiled terrorist plots in China suggest a real possibility for violence during the Beijing games, the head of Interpol said today.

WOMEN may be worsening their already slim chances of getting pregnant by having embryos screened for genetic defects before implantation, new research suggests.

THE first mother-to-daughter egg donation was announced by doctors yesterday.

The strange sex life of the African naked mole-rat is helping scientists understand how stress can lead to infertility.

Spanish police today said they are awaiting an Interpol order to carry out an arrest warrant from an Argentine judge for former President Isabel Peron, who is believed to be living in Madrid.

Interpol today called for British authorities to provide details of an alleged terrorist plot to blow up several aircraft flying from Britain to the United States, in order to help other countries take security measures and help prevent similar incidents.

Interpol has sent an alert to its 184 member nations to try to track down seven suspected terrorists who escaped from a prison in the Saudi capital, the international police organisation sai today.

A multi-disciplinary team of researchers commissioned by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has detected geographic patterns associated with mass graves that will help find hidden graves in the future.

Jim Morahan

International police organisation Interpol today offered Russia its help to determine whether militants who seized a school there were linked to international terrorists.

There could be a "perfectly innocent explanation" for the presence of fingerprints of a man accused of double murder on the glasses of one of the victims, a defence lawyer has told a jury.

A 25-year-old man accused of double murder told gardai he had a heart complaint when he was questioned in connection with the deaths, a jury has heard.

French intelligence agents have arrested eight people in connection with the bombing of a Tunisian synagogue which killed 19 people.

Tunisia acknowledged that a deadly gas truck explosion near a historic synagogue was caused by a criminal act.