Latest: The National Emergency Co-ordination group says the country remains at risk for severe flooding.

Met Éireann last night issued a yellow rainfall warning for Cork and Kerry, saying rain was expected today and overnight, but should turn more showery during Saturday morning.

Storm Frank will be in full flow today and tomorrow as forecasters warn that the rest of the week will be a washout with storms, severe flooding and high winds expected.

Heavy rainfall caused the River Shannon to burst its banks causing widespread flooding over the weekend. 

The clean-up costs for the floods will run into millions of euro, a minister has said, as he warned of further possible flooding. Rising waters are set to peak today.

A 365m stretch of the Shannon running by Limerick city centre between Sarsfield Bridge and Thomond Bridge will be critical to how flooding develops or abates over coming days in the lower Shannon between the city and Parteen Weir, 13km up river.

THE neighbourhood of Springfield just outside Clonlara village in south east Clare is in the forefront of the battle against the raging lower Shannon.

Parts of east Clare on the lower Shannon were preparing for the threat of flooding yesterday afternoon.

The uncovering of a cash laundering operation in which almost €1.5 million in cash was being dug out of a field and cleaned in a tumble drier resulted in a Limerick man being jailed for three years yesterday.

A 55-year-old man has admitted possession of almost €1.5m in cash found buried in bogland in Co Limerick.

Noel Connolly with his bikes at home in Athenry, County Galway.

A small town in southern France has banned people from wearing clown costumes in the street, especially on Halloween.

You’d think a man who lived in Ireland for a couple of years would be spending a lot of time with the Clermont Auvergne backroom staff ahead of Saturday’s Heineken Cup semi-final clash with Munster.

When the Clermont front row of internationals gets tired they troop off...to be replaced by another three internationals. Damien Varley engaged with Michael Moynihan yesterday to outline the task facing Munster in the scrum this weekend

Munster 16 Leinster 22

Ryanair has defended a sharp rise in the prices it is charging for return flights to France for Munster’s Heineken Cup semi-final match later this month.

A 32-year-old solicitor and football mentor who punched a teenage player in the face in an unprovoked assault has been given a three-month suspended jail sentence.

Life in the New York area is returning to normal after Hurricane Irene left town and headed into Canada, leaving destruction in its wake.

THE Irish Red Cross has raised over €300,000 for its flood relief operations.

THERE is “no end in sight” to the country’s devastating flood problems with high tides expected on top of more rainfall next week, the Government’s emergency response group warned last night.

Anxious communities along the banks of the River Shannon were tonight bracing themselves for devastating floods after waters reached record heights.

Flood response efforts are continuing across the Mid-West, with local authority staff, fire and rescue crews, the ESB, the army and the Gardaí providing 24-hour response to the flooding crisis on the ground.

LARGE parts of the rail and road network will remain closed this morning while the country counts the cost of the torrential flooding which has devastated thousands of homes and businesses.

ONE would want to be living on Mars not to know the courts deal seriously with drugs cases, a judge told a businessman yesterday when jailing him for four years.

A PRIEST has hit out at the hiring of a topless barmaid at a pub in his rural Limerick parish.

IT'S WHAT they call charisma. Zinedine Zidane strolls into the press room in the Stade Bollaert in Lens and, immediately, a mundane atmosphere is charged.

Ireland 1 Italy 2

‘There’s nothing wrong with his eye. We don’t do that stuff.’

GARDAÍ are clamping down on prostitution in Dublin’s north west inner city following complaints from local residents and politicians.

Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce admitted that the performance of Senegal skipper Aliou Cisse against Patrick Vieira in the World Cup convinced him to sign the midfielder from Paris St Germain.

Irish U-17 manager Brian Kerr has named four newcomers in his squad to face France in two friendlies in Montpelier on January 24 and 26 next.