A former mayor of Tours has been found dead in a suspected suicide just as he was to go on trial over suspected kickbacks involving Chinese group weddings in the picturesque Loire Valley city.

Cinemas closed and coal miners stopped work as China observed a day of mourning today for more than 1,200 victims of a mudslide a week earlier in a north-western town, while the race to protect survivors from more flooding continued.

A FIANNA FÁIL politician paid for her own flights and expenses on a city council-led delegation to China, it emerged last night.

CORK city must be much more aggressive promoting itself as a tourist destination, new figures show.