28 people have died after a tourist bus overturned on the island of Madeira.

So that’s Wednesday nearly wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

With direct flights from Cork to Malta launching next month, Suzanne Harrington visits the breathtaking island.

Two former senior executives with the Quinn group are "very reluctant" witnesses in the action by Sean Quinn's adult children disputing any liability under guarantees for loans of more than €415m, the High Court has been told.

The exceedingly swish Castlewood House team up with town neighbours Dingle Cookery Schooland photographer Monika Coghlan of Pepperazzi for a Food Styling & Photography weekend with a workshop including cookery demo and lunch from DCS proprietor and all-round force of nature Mark Murphy at the school, a craft brewery tour at Dick Mac’s pub as well as Sunday lunch from The Little Cheese Shop.

College Pudding College or Cambridge pudding is just one of Mary Honner’s 30 recipes for sweet and savoury puddings.

Afternoon tea offers an easy, stress-free entertaining option over Christmas, writes Carol O’Callaghan

Up to 20,000 Cory’s Shearwaters, oceanic birds with 1.25m wingspans, were breed on the Selvagem Islands, 280 km south of Madeira. Big, meaty birds, the squabs were traditionally harvested and salted for food. Monks on Skellig Michael similarly harvested gannet squabs from Small Skellig, writes Damien Enright

Twelve people have been killed when they were crushed by a falling tree at a religious festival on Madeira, according to Portuguese authorities.

Cookbooks are often passed from generation to generation within families, mapping out stories that can be traced through time, says Michelle Darmody.

The recent discovery that humpback whale mothers and their new-born babies whisper to each other raises intriguing questions. We usually divide vocal communications into songs and calls, writes Richard Collins.

Age should be no barrier to living an adventurous and full life, especially if you have the time after retirement, writes Caroline Allen

Explore, the adventure travel specialists, has launched eight brand new ‘Explore Beyond’ trips, which offer cruising through the tropical waters of West Papua, exploring the remote villages of the Ivory Coast or experiencing the Adivasi Tribal Fair in east India. 

To have an airport called after you demands a wider international celebrity most Irish sportspeople simply do not have, writes Paul Rouse.

Last week, Colm Greaves had a terrific piece in this paper speculating on what Charles Haughey’s political and personal career would have been like if he’d retained a financial interest in a lucrative filly he sold on, Ballidaress.

Video replays took centre stage as Spain beat France 2-0 in a friendly at the Stade de France.

EVERYTHING is very plain and modern now,” a dying man tells the author Jack London roughly halfway through Minds of Winter, warning the writer against the gothic, supernatural excesses of the yarn he is spinning in a hospital ward.

Cristiano Ronaldo will miss the UEFA Super Cup, the Real Madrid forward has announced.

10-day fly-drive LA packakge

Paralympic champion Josef Craig has been disqualified from a race at the IPC European Championships in Madeira for failing to cover up his tattoo of the Olympic rings.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

Ireland was always very brand-conscious up until recently and it took the arrival of the German discounters and the recession to shake us up a little.

GoHop has seven nights in Vietnam with visits to Hanoi, Halong Bay and Ho Chi Minh City.

A 65-year-old British woman was rescued by Portuguese fishermen after she tried to swim out to her passing cruise liner in pursuit of her husband.

A pregnant woman is among the seven people identified as being infected with the zika virus in Spain after visiting affected countries.

There has been a lot of publicity about the new UK alcohol guidelines and much discussion about the benefits of a “dry January” these past few weeks. I’m not convinced.

The thing I love most about the Christmas meal is that for once I am not the only one fussing and worrying about what wine to serve. 

The Mexican Environment Secretary, Rafael Pacchia, says that the number of monarch butterflies hibernating in his country will be three to four times greater this winter than it has been in recent years, writes Richard Collins

Peter Dowdall is truly taken with a dynamic, exotic small garden that puts the lie to bland suburban plots.

Check out our guide to the best of tonight's TV.

E UROPE, the second smallest of the seven continents, covers seven per cent of the world’s landmass and has about 742m citizens. More than two billion pairs of birds, of some 530 species, nest here.

Barbara Scully discovered the wonders of a charming Atlantic outpost designed for relaxation.

Dolores Aveiro, the mother of Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, the highest-paid footballer in the world, was stopped trying to leave a Spanish airport with €55,000 in her handbag.

The human tragedy that was the transportation of Irish convicts to Australia was immortalised in the sporting anthem, ‘Fields of Athenry’. The first journey from Cobh was one of the most dangerous, writes Robert Hume

IT’S NOT difficult to make paté at home and taking fuel costs into consideration can be quite economical if you make a batch of about a kilo. 

Two leading players have questioned why there was no ambulance on site after Fabrizio Zanotti was struck on the head by a ball in the KLM Open yesterday.

THERE were many wine, whiskey, beer and cider highlights at the Ballymaloe Literary Festival this year so make sure to put the third weekend of May in your diary for 2015.