Finance Minister Michael Noonan has offered a sign of hope that progress has been made on Ireland's bank debt.

Tens of thousands of people from all over the country converged on Spain’s capital to hold a large anti-austerity demonstration today.

IRISH Continental Group plc (ICG) has sold the ferry Bilbao to the St Peter Line in Nicosia, Cyprus, for €37.7 million, payable in instalments over 5.75 years, up to September 2016.

GANGS of rock-throwing youths made sporadic attacks on police stations across Athens, stoned the Interior Ministry and clashed with riot police outside parliament yesterday in a third day of violence protesting the police shooting of a teenager.