The anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster will be marked this week by highlighting the plight of millions of people living in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

HUNDREDS of children born with life-threatening heart defects as a direct result of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster will be saved by a gruelling 600km charity race in Munster.

A 17-YEAR tradition of visits by Chernobyl children to Ireland was secured yesterday after a new treaty was signed between Ireland and Belarus.

A ban on Chernobyl children travelling on recuperation holidays to Ireland may be lifted by Belarus in time for Christmas, it emerged today.

A ban on Belarus children coming to Ireland was today discussed on the fringes of an EU meeting in Luxembourg.

THE two little girls playing tea party in the sparse room of the orphanage caught John O’Riordan’s eye.

A CHILDREN’S charity has come to the aid of Chernobyl children after seeing harrowing scenes of orphans undergoing surgery without any anaesthetic.

DIPLOMATIC efforts are under way to get Belarus to lift a threatened ban on children affected by the Chernobyl disaster from travelling to Ireland for holidays.

MORE than 200 amateur cyclists will set off today in an attempt to raise €125,000 for victims of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

More than 1,000 children from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone will fly into Ireland today for the annual summer holiday scheme.

TABLE soccer, a giant gladiator jousting bed, a rodeo bull and a hotel that turns into a casino… and that’s just for the adults.

RAISA Carolan from Belarus yesterday recalled the “mostly bad” times she experienced in the orphanage she left four years ago to live with her adopted parents in Ireland.

Cork-based concert organisers, Viva Cork, are exhausting all avenues to get Irish rockers U2 to come to Cork for a major charity music festival later this year.

Tens of thousands of firefighters died as a result of their efforts to stop an atomic explosion at Chernobyl which would have made Europe uninhabitable, it was claimed today.

The Chernobyl Children’s Project International (CCPI) today warned thousands of children suffering from the effects of nuclear contamination in Belarus are in danger if authorities impose foreign travel restrictions.