FURTHER details of the controversial sacking of Bord na gCon chief executive Aidan Tynan are expected this week when Sports Minister John O’Donoghue receives an urgent report on the matter.

SCHOOLCHILDREN cheered as the first total eclipse in years plunged Ghana into daytime darkness yesterday, a solar show sweeping northeast from Brazil to Mongolia.

FINE Gael and Labour leaders have demanded the Taoiseach tell them the elements of a deal surrounding the Lisbon treaty that is to be discussed at an EU summit in Brussels next week.

IRELAND lock Paul O’Connell featured for an hour as a better-drilled Munster A side cruised to an easy 38-5 victory over their Ulster counterparts at Shaw’s Bridge, Belfast, yesterday.

US OFFICIALS knew months before September 11, 2001, that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network was planning to use aircraft to carry out a terrorist attack, a former FBI translator has alleged.

THE Taoiseach was like a bishop on the eve of announcing diocesan changes when he made a pilgrimage to the national ploughing championships at Grangeford, near Tullow, in Co Carlow yesterday.

DAVID PLEAT yesterday assessed the crumbling wreckage of Tottenham’s season and backed talented youngster Johnnie Jackson to provide the inspiration for Spurs’ survival battle.

CHILDREN are swapping the bodhrán for the bassoon and the tin whistle for the tuba as educators seek to bring classical music to the islands.

THE European Rugby Cup confirmed yesterday it has received a formal complaint from losing finalist Biarritz about TV coverage of the Heineken Cup in Cardiff.

DERMOT WELD was in double form at Cologne in Germany, yesterday taking Listed races with Burren Rose and Society Hostess.

A GRINNING Gerhard Schroeder leapt onto a giant stage to thumping music and applause from several thousand Social Democratic (SPD) supporters.