Oscar winning directors the Coen Brothers will once again provide the opening gala for the Corona Cork Film Festival with Burn After Reading, their latest movie starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

The Beamish Cork Folk Festival begins today (Thursday, October 2) with some 34 acts and 5000 dancers set to descend on the city for the four-day event.

As the economy continues to falter, the Cork Simon shelter has seen an increase in the number of people looking to access their emergency shelter every night.

Models Aishling Cronin, Miss Cork 2007, and Lorraine Turner rev up awareness of the motorsport rally at the launch at the Maxol Filling Station on the Lower Glanmire Road, Tivoli in Cork with rally crew Gareth Roberts, Andrew Edwards, Elfyn Evans and Meilyr Evans.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin shakes hands with US Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte, after signing a new visa agreement at the US State Department in Washington, DC.

More than 150 staff at the Swissco plant in Little Island are facing job losses. On Tuesday the Cork-based supplier of ready-made meals informed staff that it has not been profitable for some time and closing the plant seems the only viable option.

Drivers travelling on the country's newest motorways today will be allowed to reach new speeds of up to 120km/h following the new Motorway Declarations announced by the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey yesterday (Wednesday, September 24).

Management at Beamish and Crawford have quashed media speculation that the company is to make redundancies at its Cork plant.

Union representatives in Cork are seeking an urgent meeting with Gerry O' Dwyer HSE Network Manager for the Southern Hospitals Group to discuss the future of St Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital (SMOH). Health workers at the hospital are seriously concerned about the future of their jobs following revelations that the Cork University Hospitals Group is considering reviewing the orthopaedic elective service and the plastic surgery elective service at SMOH with a view to determining how best the service can be delivered into the future.

Members of The Garda Diving Unit searching for missing girl Catherine Kelleher near Inniscara yesterday.