Ireland is among six EU countries which have agreed to take in migrants stranded on a rescue ship in the Mediterranean.

A new European border and coast guard force has been officially launched at a checkpoint on the bloc's external border with Turkey in Bulgaria.

Treatment for drug addiction continues to rise in Ireland, with a significant increase in new cases involving cannabis, tranquillisers, and cocaine.

The European Union has welcomed in 74 Syrian refugees from Turkey and sent more than 300 migrants back there under a new agreement between the EU and Ankara.

Monitors from Turkey have arrived on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios to help supervise an agreement aimed at limiting the number of refugees and migrants travelling to the European Union.

Seven bodies, including those of two children, were recovered from the sea off the eastern Aegean island of Kos yesterday after a boat carrying migrants sank, Greek authorities said.

There was a rally in favour of helping the waves of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe in Brussels on Monday as EU Interior Ministers held an emergency meeting.

The purity and potency of all the main illegal drugs is increasing in Europe, posing heightened dangers to users, drug experts have warned.

EU plans to destroy the boats of smugglers bringing desperate migrants across the Mediterranean and share the refugee burden more evenly came under fresh fire last night from within and outside the EU.

The European Union must take a collective stand to tackle migrant trafficking at its source in African countries, Italy’s prime minister Matteo Renzi said ahead of an emergency summit of the bloc’s leaders yesterday to discuss the crisis.

An unprecedented wave of migrants has headed for the European Union’s promised shores over the past week, with 10,000 people making the trip. Hundreds — nobody knows how many — have disappeared into the waters of the Mediterranean, including 41 migrants reported dead yesterday after a shipwreck.

The European Union has introduced new measures to help member nations seize the travel documents of people suspected of trying to join terrorist organisations outside the EU.

European leaders are gearing up for a high-stakes week of financial diplomacy that could determine Greece’s future – and the stability of the 17 countries that use the euro.

Greece’s new prime minister will not be well enough to travel to a critical European Union summit in Brussels after undergoing an eye operation, the government said today.

EUROPE’S most nicotine-addicted nation adopted a new public smoking ban yesterday in a bid to stub out the Greek habit of lighting up practically everywhere. Exceptions have been made for mental patients and gamblers.

Gunmen linked to Greece’s most militant guerrillas shot and seriously wounded a policeman in Athens yesterday, weeks after the killing of a teenager by police prompted nation wide rioting.

Fresh off its re-election in the smouldering aftermath of deadly forest fires, Greece’s conservative prime minister Costas Karamanlis unveiled a streamlined cabinet peppered with a few new faces.

GREECE’S governing conservatives appeared headed for election victory last night, exit polls showed, despite widespread anger over devastating forest fires that killed more than 65 people last month.

Official results with just more than 40% of the total vote in the Greek election today counted showed Karamanlis' New Democracy party ahead with 43.7% and the opposition socialist PASOK party in second place with 38.5%.

SETTING off firecrackers, blaring their horns and waving flags, thousands of Greeks yesterday continued to celebrate the country’s first win in the Eurovision Song Contest.