Alex Salmond, Scotland’s former first minister, has been charged with two counts of attempted rape as he faces 14 offences. In total, he has been charged with two counts of attempted rape, nine counts of sexual assault, two of indecent assault and one breach of the peace, the Crown Office said. After a hearing at […]

A MAN has been charged with possessing an imitation firearm in connection with a major security alert at a family law court in Dublin. The Phoenix House courts building at Smithfield in Dublin, where Judge Susan Ryan of the Circuit Court was presiding, was evacuated and a major security operation took place at around 11.30am […]

A Co Clare stable owner who raped and sexually assaulted a teenage girl has received a partially suspended sentence. Ger Hehir (58) was convicted after a seven-day retrial in November of four sexual assaults and one charge of raping the girl on dates between 2010 and 2013. Hehir of Drumcavan, Ruan, Co. Clare had pleaded […]

SEXUALLY explicit text messages which a married man instructed a schoolgirl to delete from her phone once she’d read them, were easily retrieved by gardaí following a complaint from the child’s mother. The ‘sexts’ led to the conviction by a jury of Ray McHugh (39), from Ballaghbawn, Belclare, Tuam, for the oral rape, sexual exploitation […]

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The EU reacted cautiously on Thursday (Jan 24) to the fast-moving crisis in Venezuela, reluctant to abandon all hope of dialogue in a country with a huge European expatriate community. On Wednesday, the United States, Canada and most of Caracas’ South American neighbours endorsed opposition leader Juan Guaido’s claim on the Venezuelan […]

The grandparents of French children of Islamic State group (IS) fighters are lobbying for their return from Syria and Iraq. But why, they ask, is the government moving so slowly? France has more nationals in the region than any other Western country. As of November 2017, an estimated 700 French nationals were still fighting with […]

At least five people have died after a helicopter and a light aircraft collided on the border between France and Italy, authorities have said. Rescuers have recovered two injured from the crash site, Italy’s mountain rescue service (CNSAS) tweeted. The crash happened over the Rutor glacier near La Thuile in the Aosta valley. Two helicopters […]

LONDON (BLOOMBERG) – The amount of climate-damaging carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is likely to reach another record in 2019, driven by an increase in fossil fuel use and a decline in the area of the planet covered by forests, the British Met Office said. The United Kingdom’s official weather forecaster said the gain this […]

The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Italy to pay €18,400 to Amanda Knox after ruling that she was denied adequate legal representation when she was questioned over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher over a decade ago. Ms Knox accused Italian police of slapping her around the head, threatening her verbally and […]

The Master of the High Court, Edmund Honohan, will no longer be dealing with cases involving debt. The move was directed on Wednesday by the President of the High Court Mr Justice Peter Kelly. Reasons for the decision are currently unclear. Mr Justice Kelly’s practice direction states that from February 4 all motions seeking liberty […]