Amnesty International is calling for an overhaul of Ireland's procedures for granting overflight and landing permission to military aircraft.

Politicians will debate the lack of inspections of CIA flights landing at Shannon Airport when the Dáil meets today.

A conference in Dublin today is hearing calls for a legal mechanism that could force the Irish Government to inspect CIA flights passing through Shannon Airport.

Europe's leading human rights watchdog has accused 14 European countries, including Ireland, of colluding in controversial and illegal "extraordinary rendition flights", allegedly being run by the CIA.

The head of a European investigation into alleged CIA secret prisons today said planes carrying terror suspects stopped in Romania and Poland and likely dropped off detainees there.

Amnesty International has reiterated its condemnation of the Irish Government's attitude to CIA 'rendition' flights allegedly passing through Shannon Airport.

A European investigator said today he has mounting indications that the US illegally held detainees in Europe – then hurriedly shipped out the last ones to north Africa when word leaked out.

The Swiss investigator probing claims that the CIA operated secret prisons in Europe today said people were apparently abducted and transferred illegally between countries.

An investigator looking into claims that the CIA operated secret prisons in Europe said today that people were apparently abducted and transferred between countries illegally.

Poland’s prime minister has ordered an investigation into whether the CIA ran secret jails for terrorist suspects there, saying the issue must be cleared up before it becomes “dangerous” for his country.

A Human Rights Watch investigator said Poland was the CIA’s main centre to detain terrorist suspects in Europe at clandestine prisons, a Polish newspaper reported today.

Europe’s leading human rights watchdog said today it soon hopes to be able to monitor satellite footage of suspect sites in Romania and Poland as part of its investigation into alleged secret CIA prisons and flights in Europe.

Peace activists involved in monitoring the US military use of Shannon Airport have refused to accept US assurances about controversial CIA flights using the Co Clare facility.

Thailand today denied a news report that it allowed the United States to set up a secret prison where an al-Qaida suspect was badly mistreated during interrogations.

The US Ambassador to Ireland is to be asked to appear before an Oireachtas committee to discuss the controversial CIA aircraft that have been using Shannon Airport.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today said the Bush administration would use “every lawful means” to combat international terrorism and did not condone torture.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened a four-nation European trip today by meeting with her German counterpart amid questions of whether the US keeps terrorist suspects in secret prisons that violate European legal and human-rights guarantees.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice makes a stop in Romania today amid allegations that the CIA operated a secret prison where top al-Qaida captives were interrogated in the country.

The North's Human Rights Commission has expressed concern about the possible use of Belfast International Airport by the CIA.

Romanian aviation officials and the military denied reports today that the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in south-east Romania was used by the CIA as a detention facility for suspected terrorists.

At midnight on an autumn night two years ago, a Boeing passenger plane with seven people carrying US passports touched down at a little-used airport deep in the pine forests of north-eastern Poland, officials say.

The Minister for the Environment said today the Government had concerns about the use of Shannon Airport by the US military.

The European Union said today it would ask governments of its East European member countries, and those seeking membership, to comment publicly on allegations that the CIA set up secret jails in the region to interrogate al-Qaida suspects.

European Union human rights chiefs and the Red Cross are to investigate claims that the CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe and elsewhere to interrogate al-Qaida suspects.