Almost €17m in taxpayers’ money is being spent every year to keep ambassadors and high-ranking officials in the lap of luxury, including €4.5m alone on lavish diplomatic residences.

If you’re going to San Francisco... you’ll still be able to get back Leeside, like.

Irish Olympians, Rob and Marian Heffernan, have launched the inaugural National Lottery Good Causes Awards.

BOUNCING back towards full occupancy is Cork’s City Quarter office and retail/restaurant investment, sold last year for €14 million to private clients/investors with MC2

Six people have died after a sea plane crashed near Sydney, Australia.

Relatives of an Australian woman shot dead by US police have said she made an emergency call to report a sexual assault before the incident.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

A new home, the RBS 6 Nations title to defend and changing priorities make for a challenging year for Niamh Briggs and her Ireland women’s team but head coach Tom Tierney is relishing the opportunity to strike the right balance.

A toddler was found alone and scavenging for food and water in his home after both his mum and baby brother tragically died.

An Irishman, put into an induced coma after he suffered a brain injury following an assault in Sydney, Australia, has been moved out of intensive care.

The Class of 92 were united in mourning at the funeral of Neville Neville, the father of former Manchester United footballers Gary and Phil.

Tributes poured in for Neville Neville, father of former Manchester United footballers Gary and Phil, who has died after suffering a heart attack.

Good afternoon. Here’s everything you need to know from around the world this lunchtime.

The Greek government is reportedly planning to request a new two-year bailout deal from the eurozone, from coal to drugs - Christy Keane’s business empires, how to plan your finance route carefully for a new set of wheels and the world’s tallest cow. Here’s this evening’s irishexaminer.com catch-up.

Hotlines are being set up in Cork City to contact specially trained personnel who will safely dispose of the increasing number of dirty needles being discarded on the streets by heroin addicts.

A bright and bubbly young woman, Karen Buckley grew up on her parents’ farm at Glynn, Mourneabbey about 12km outside Mallow in north Cork. As the youngest in her family, the 24-year-old has three older brothers: Brendan, 32; Kieran 28, and Damian 27.

Ah, good old fight gameMonopoly - having just turned 80 years old, the creator of more family arguments than any other form of recreation is releasing a special round-the-world edition.

At least five more hostages have fled the scene of the siege at the cafe in Sydney, Australia.

Nicole Kidman has opened up about her "really hard" year.

Galway has been designated a UNESCO City of Film.

Dublin has been voted one of the friendliest cities on the planet by an influential travel magazine.

Dublin has been voted one of the friendliest cities on the planet by an influential travel magazine.

Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have been invited to perform at 'Alien Woodstock' in a bid to make extra-terrestrials reveal themselves to the planet.

The Southern Right whale swam with the surfers at Freshwater Beach off the coast of Sydney.

Women’s health is being increasingly threatened by the "over-medicalisation" of pregnancy in both poorer parts of the world and high-income countries such as the UK, say experts.

The Irish man who had been found with a broken arm after being missing for five days in Sydney, Australia, has undergone two bouts of brain surgery and is in a critical condition.

A post mortem into the death of Peaches Geldof will be carried out “in the next few days”, police said.

Bob Geldof said his family were “beyond pain” after his daughter Peaches was found dead at the age of 25.

Peaches Geldof, the daughter of Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates, was found dead yesterday at the age of 25.

One Direction have enlisted 100 bodyguards for their upcoming stadium tour.

Angelina Jolie has revealed footage from her upcoming survival saga Unbroken, which she directed and produced.

Justin Bieber has been behaving like a bad boy to boost his career, R&B singer Brian McKnight has claimed.

A woman from the North has been found murdered in a car park in Sydney, Australia.

Dubai shattered the world record for the largest ever pyrotechnic display on New Year’s Eve with a show involving more than half a million fireworks, Guinness World Records said yesterday.

The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has selected Pepper Asset Servicing as its preferred bidder to provide services on the portfolio of personal loans, principally residential mortgage loans, which it may acquire from the liquidators appointed to IBRC.

Four brothers who torched the home of a sex offender and his 21-year-old girlfriend seven years ago have been found guilty of manslaughter.

The 'Heartbreaker' singer, who has at least 17 other pieces of body art, opted to get a new marking just minutes after coming off stage in Sydney, Australia on Saturday.

Ronan Keating used therapy and self-help books after he split from Yvonne Connolly.

The 20-year-old singer was staying at Jonah's Whale Beach hotel in Sydney, Australia, when six teenage girls and an eight-year-old boy stole his red Calvin Klein boxers, which were hanging on the balcony to dry after he had spent the day surfing.

Minister Jimmy Deenihan will travel to Sydney, Australia to lead the ceremonies for the 2013 International Commemoration of the Great Irish Famine.

Remembering the victims of the Great Famine should encourage Irish people to intervene wherever there is injustice and hunger around the world, the President has said.

Schoolchildren will hold a minute’s silence today to remember those who died in the Great Famine.