Washington, July 3 : Love beer and have a dream to travel to the space? Well, here's your chance to fulfil your wish-just enter a new contest by the company behind the dark Irish beer Guinness.he beer bosses have reserved a seat aboard a suborbital Virgin Galactic space liner as one of three experience prizes in an online contest honouring the 250th birthday of the beer's brewery this...

Taoiseach Brian Cowen signalled last night. "There is no avoiding the difficult adjustment that needs to take place in the labour market," Mr Cowen told a special Dail debate yesterday. "Costs have...

Jul 4 2009 The Foreign Office is defending British Embassy staff in Iran against threats to put them on trial for alleged involvement in anti-government protests. Foreign Secretary David Miliband...

Pat Carey had kindly ensured that no votes were scheduled for yesterday, there was less than a full house for the debate.First though the denizens of Leinster House were briefly woken from their...

YouTube channel. Accompanied by a sprinkling of piano music, the first video, George Lee TD, glories the media scrum that enveloped Mr Lee on his first day in the Dail. For those who want to see how...

Jul 4 2009 Organisers of Michael Jackson's public memorial have announced that British fans will be able to apply for tickets. The clamour for tickets for the event in Los Angeles began as soon...

EVERYONE in the country is shortly to be offered a free swine flu vaccination as health authorities brace themselves for a worst-case scenario of up to 100,000 new cases a week.The vaccines -- which...

Dublin 4 and 6 at a time when more than 400,000sq ft of relatively modern offices are available nearby and major companies are slow to take up office space.The move comes at a time when efforts by...

Tamiflu must be taken within 48 hours of the onset of flu symptoms for full efficacy. It is usually taken for five days. It works by reducing symptoms and minimising the risk of an infected person...

A man was fighting for his life yesterday after being stabbed in the neck on a busy city street in the middle of the afternoon.The 31-year-old was on a life-support machine in a critical condition in...

LONDON -- International credit rating agency Moody's on Thursday downgraded the “Aaa” rating on Irish government bonds, citing a costly banking-sector bailout and stretched public finances....

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Jul 4 2009 North Korea has reportedly fired two mid-range missiles off it eastern coast. South Korea's Yonhap news agency's report says the launches on Saturday appeared to be of Scud missiles. ...

Jul 4 2009 Margaret Thatcher's famous budget rebate "victory" in Europe 25 years ago was actually a defeat which left her broken and in tears, it has been claimed. French economist Jacques Attali...

Jul 4 2009 Organisers of Michael Jackson's public memorial have announced that British fans will be able to apply for tickets. The clamour for tickets for the event in Los Angeles began as soon...

DAN KEENAN THE ANNUAL Drumcree parade has again been prohibited from the nationalist Garvaghy Road area of Portadown, Co Armagh tomorrow. The decision maintains the policy of refusing permission for...

Jul 3 2009 A fire in a block of flats left has six people dead, including three children. The blaze, in Havil Street, Camberwell, south London, began on the four floor of the 12-storey block on...

MICHAEL O'REGAN DÁIL SKETCH: GREEN PARTY TD Ciaran Cuffe threw a spanner in the Government’s works yesterday, when he expressed reservations about the controversial Criminal Justice Bill....

MICHAEL PARSONS GARDAÍ­ IN Carlow have seized a huge consignment of illegal pornographic films in a series of raids on an adult shop in the town. Gardaí secured a court order to take...

MARIE O'HALLORAN GOVERNMENT backbencher Ciarán Cuffe has sharply criticised criminal justice legislation which allows for the use of the non-jury, three-judge Special Criminal Court to deal with...

CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor THE NEW gangland legislation, the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill, is vulnerable to constitutional challenge, according to a leading criminal lawyer. Speaking as...

KATHRYN HAYES THE GOVERNMENT has sought in the region of €20 million in assistance from the European Globalisation Fund, it has emerged. Speaking during a visit to Limerick yesterday EU...

The new US ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, with James and John Finn from Claremorris, Co Mayo, during the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland annual Independence Day lunch in the Four Seasons...

STEPHEN COLLINS, Political Editor TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has defended his record as minister for finance and insisted that he has no more cause for regret than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or...

PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent THE LABOUR Party has appealed to the Government not to oppose its private members Bill addressing the concerns of victims of abuse in religious-run...

MICHAEL O'REGAN THE ECONOMIC focus must now be on reducing expenditure rather than on increasing total taxation, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said. He said he would receive the conclusions of...

EITHNE DONNELLAN, ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS inherited by the HSE are no longer adequate, according to a new report. The report, published yesterday by the Department of Health, said the systems were not...

MARY CAROLAN THE REVENUE has won unprecedented summary judgment orders from the Commercial Court requiring two SUV dealers to pay more than €10 million arising from unpaid VAT and interest. The...

EITHNE DONNELLAN, Health Correspondent TWELVE NEW cases of swine flu were confirmed in the State yesterday, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned the spread of the virus was now...

MARIE O'HALLORAN OPPOSITION TDS have sharply criticised as an “abuse of power” the “frenzied manner” in which controversial new criminal justice legislation is being...

In Short A KILDARE bouncer with one day’s training threw a customer out of a nightclub and left him lying in a pool of blood, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard. Ultan Mac Raghnaill (26),...

PADDY CLANCY FOUR MEN who were accused of driving their motor bikes in convoy at 260 km/h escaped a dangerous driving conviction yesterday. The charges against them were dismissed after the...

JOHN FALLON A CO GALWAY mother believes that lightning which struck her Connemara home would have killed her daughter had she been in her bedroom when the incident happened. Sabina Berry has called...

MICHAEL O'REGAN TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen defended his record as minister for finance during a series of statements on the recent OECD and IMF reports. His regret, he said, was that he did not manage to...

MARTIN WALL, Industry Correspondent A COMPANY operating port facilitates at Dublin Port yesterday secured an interim ex-parte injunction to prevent picketers from obstructing vehicles entering or...

MARY MINIHAN THE LATE Christy Hanley’s niece, Breeda Harvey, told the court that Noel Cawley was a “monster” who showed no remorse for killing an “extraordinary, kind,...

MICHAEL O'REGAN FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny claimed the IMF report was a “damning indictment’’ of Brian Cowen’s record as minister for finance. “The report makes it...

CARL O'BRIEN, Social Affairs Correspondent THE VAST majority of the State’s 37,000 childminders are not declaring their income to the Revenue Commissioners, new figures indicate. Just 229, or a...

MARK BARRY A CORK woman received a suspended three-year prison sentence yesterday for stabbing her husband in the back less than one year after the couple married. Unemployed hairdresser Laura Egan...

CAIRO (AP) - The international peacekeeping mission in Darfur says gunmen have abducted two female aid workers in the western Sudanese region. Noureddine Mezni, a spokesman for the United...

In Short A FORMER client of struck-off solicitor Thomas Byrne is liable for a €1.33 million bank loan although he was a victim of fraud and deception by the lawyer, the High Court ruled...

MICHAEL McHALE PERFORMANCES BY a rock star, a celebration of 300-year-old satirical literature and ballroom dancing are some of the many events and festivals taking place nationwide this weekend. Rod...

Jul 4 2009 BT employees have been offered the chance of long-term holidays if they agree to huge pay cuts, the company said tonight. One option available to staff is taking a year off with a 75%...

Inquiry begins as house bought for Travellers destroyed in fire A MAN who brutally robbed and killed 83-year-old Christy Hanley in Co Westmeath last year will be sentenced next week. Mr Hanley was...

MARIE O'HALLORAN TWO LIMERICK Government Ministers have staunchly defended the legislation to allow for non-jury trials as essential to dealing with gangland crime in their city. Minister for Defence...

PAUL CULLEN THE FINANCIAL Regulator has told banks and insurance companies they should disclose overcharging incidents rather than wait for the media to find out about them. Proactively bringing...

Garda scene-of-crime investigators and detectives at the house at Ballina, Co Tipperary, that was destroyed after fire broke out at the property at around 1.30am yesterday. Photograph: Brian...

TOM SHIEL RIPPED UP roads, ruined bridges and mountains scarred by landslides are a stark reminder of the severe flooding which hit west Mayo on Thursday. As the clean-up gathered pace yesterday,...

JIMMY WALSH SEANAD REPORT: THE PROPERTY market would be distorted as a result of a scandalous lending policy that had been adopted by at least one financial institution, Brendan Ryan (Labour)...

DAN KEENAN, Northern News Editor FIVE APPLICANTS are to be interviewed by the policing board for the position of PSNI chief constable next month. The board said seven applications were received to...