114,000 cigarettes, with a retail value of around €55,000, have been seized by Revenue Customs officers in Dublin.

Hundreds of masked protesters hurled stones and bottles at police during a demonstration today by tens of thousands of people against the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Germany.

German authorities are using scent tracking to keep tabs on possibly violent protesters against next month’s Group of Eight summit – a tactic that is drawing comparisons with the methods of former East Germany’s secret police.

Iran will respond in mid-August to the Western incentives for a rolling back of its nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.

US Under-secretary of State Nicholas Burns said today that a majority of the countries that are permanent members of the UN Security Council and Group of Eight members support possible sanctions against Iran in the dispute over the country’s nuclear programme.