The divorce cash demands of the ex-wife of a Saudi billionaire “are firmly in ‘gasp’ territory”, a judge has heard.

North Korea has declared plans to launch an Earth observation satellite on a rocket later this month.

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.

Holidaymakers heading for the continent by ferry next year could pay up to 30% more because of new European Commission shipping rules, a leading cruise firm has suggested.

North Korea was today injecting liquid fuel into the rocket it intends to send into space soon.

HAPAG-LLOYD and Maersk Line are among ship owners facing a $100 billion (€77.5bn) bill to cleanse ballast water that spreads diseases such as cholera and invasive species, including mitten crabs, adding to costs as cargo rates slump.

The Italian operator of the Costa Concordia has today accused the ship's jailed captain, Francesco Schettino, of causing ship to run aground, saying he made an "unapproved, unauthorised manoeuvre'' to divert the vessel from its programmed course.

Emergency Services in Italy are denying reports that a seventh body has been found amid the wreckage of the Costa Condordia this morning.

United Nations and international maritime agencies promised to give Lebanon immediate technical advice today to help clean up an oil slick, and warned the operation could cost more than €50m.

Authorities have found the black box of the Egyptian ferry that sank in the Red Sea earlier this month leaving more than 1,000 people dead, the transport minister said today.

BETWEEN €5 million and €10m will be spent over the next six months to put in place a national security system at Irish ports to counter terrorist threats.

The Government has been urged to keep a shipment of weapons-grade plutonium out of Irish waters.

The rapid spread of alien species through oceans and seas is playing havoc with the world’s delicate environment, experts will warn this week.

BELFAST port is a perfect target for global terrorists plotting new strikes on the west, security experts warned yesterday.

IRISH exports could be crippled by new security measures being introduced at the behest of the US Government in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

A proposed blacklist of “very dangerous” substandard ships was published today by the European Commission.

UNDER current global shipping rules laid down by the London-based International Maritime Organisation (IMO), single-hulled tankers must be phased out by 2015.

Activists from the environment group Greenpeace are arriving in Dublin this week to prepare for a protest against a shipment of radioactive waste which will travel through the Irish Sea to Sellafield.

Australia’s stubborn refusal to accept a Norwegian cargo ship that rescued 438 Afghan refugees from a sinking ferry endangers the time-honoured practice of saving people at sea, the shipping industry has warned.

The captain of a ship carrying 438 Afghan refugees is refusing to leave Australia's territorial waters.