A man alleged to be a former senior commander of the Provisional IRA is expected to come before a court here in the near future after he was arrested in Spain on historic child sex abuse charges.

Spanish police searched for possible explosives at the Madrid headquarters of the ruling conservative Popular Party after a man rammed his car into the office entrance.

Protests in the Thai capital have turned violent with at least one man killed and five wounded by gunshots in street fighting between government supporters and opponents.

Spanish police have arrested an 85-year-old Irish Roman Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing three altar boys in Britain over many years.

Two women arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle cocaine worth €1.7m out of Peru have been refused bail and could spend up to three years in prison awaiting trial, it has emerged.

Two women arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle cocaine worth €1.7m out of Peru have been refused bail and could spend up to three years in prison awaiting trial, it emerged last night.

Two women arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle cocaine worth €1.7m out of Peru have been formally charged, prosecutors have said.

Two women arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle cocaine worth €1.7m from Peru have appeared in court.

The parents of two women arrested in Peru on suspicion of drug trafficking say they intend to travel to the South American country to see their daughters.

The mother of an Irish model being held on suspicion of drug trafficking in Peru has spoken of her distress.

A train driver suspected of causing Spain’s deadliest train disaster for 70 years has refused to answer police questions, Spanish officials have confirmed.

Thirty-eight people were arrested and 64 others injured when Spanish police clashed with protesters demonstrating against austerity cutbacks and tax hikes.

President Juan Manuel Santos announced that a man he described as Colombia’s last big-time drug lord had been captured in neighbouring Venezuela.

Two police officers have been arrested in connection with the hit-and-run death of a tourist in Majorca after the one who was driving failed an alcohol test.

Twenty-five suspected members of the Anonymous hacker movement have been arrested in police raids across Europe and South America.

A gunman walked into a Catholic church in Spain and killed a pregnant woman said to have been his ex-girlfriend, then committed suicide.

Indonesia deployed security forces to an eastern region after gangs of Muslims and Christians armed with rocks and machetes clashed in violence that left three people dead and 80 others injured, officials said today.

The toxic red sludge overflow from a Hungarian factory which destroyed three villages today reached the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river.

HUNGARY’S top investigative agency opened a criminal probe into the toxic sludge flood yesterday while the European Union and environmental groups warned the disaster could spread down the Danube and have long-term consequences for several nations.

A young girl resembling Madeleine McCann captured on CCTV film in a New Zealand shop is not the missing girl, police said today.

A NEW ZEALAND teenager who says she auctioned her virginity online for NZ$45,000 (€22,000) to raise tuition money did not break any laws but it might be risky for her to follow through on the deal, police warned yesterday.

Spanish police arrested 36 suspected members of a youth organisation outlawed for its links to the armed group ETA, officials said today.

A powerful bomb exploded today near the Basque city of Bilbao, killing a policeman in an attack blamed on the separatist group Eta.

Tens of thousands of Angola’s Catholics lined the streets of the capital for a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI, who urged the country’s faithful to reach out and convert people who believed in witchcraft.

NEIGHBOURING north Kerry and west Limerick parishes were last night trying to come to terms with tragedies that claimed the lives of a young solider and a schoolboy.

Chile’s police chief and 10 others were killed when the ageing Panamanian government helicopter in which they were travelling crashed into a three-storey building in Panama City.

DOZENS of armed attackers stormed a village in western Kenya yesterday killing at least 13 people, including six children.

A handful of Sunni mosques were attacked or burned today, but curfews and increased troop levels kept Iraq in relative calm a day after suspected al Qaida bombers toppled the towering minarets of a revered Shiite shrine.

SPANISH police arrested 15 people yesterday on suspicion of recruiting volunteers for terror training in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Fresh off a whirlwind yachting break, French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy returned to work with a meeting due today with Tony Blair.

Spanish police today said they are awaiting an Interpol order to carry out an arrest warrant from an Argentine judge for former President Isabel Peron, who is believed to be living in Madrid.

A Slovak military plane carrying troops back from Kosovo crashed into a mountainside in north-eastern Hungary, killing at least 42 people, officials said today.

Spanish police today arrested at least seven people suspected of recruiting fighters for the Iraqi insurgency, Spanish news reports said.

Some 3,000 police fanned out around Paris today ahead of feared weekend attacks on high-profile targets such as the Eiffel Tower, as the number of vehicles torched overnight rose slightly elsewhere in France, according to officials.

The US today warned its citizens living in Indonesia that terrorists were planning to bomb hotels in the capital Jakarta, while the police chief also cautioned that fresh attacks were likely.

The US closed all of its diplomatic facilities in Indonesia today until further notice, citing an unspecified security threat.

GANG members fighting in a provincial Dominican Republic prison set pillows and sheets ablaze, starting a fire that killed at least 58 people, officials said yesterday.

SUNAMI orphans could be targeted by criminal gangs who want to sell them, child protection experts warned last night.

THE leader of an armed nationalist group that seized a remote Peruvian police station and took officers and soldiers hostage surrendered to authorities yesterday, but 125 of his followers remained inside with their captives.

Swedish and Thai police are searching for a 12-year-old Swedish boy last seen leaving a Thai hospital with an unknown man in the aftermath of the south Asian tsunami.

A car bomb killed seven Colombian policemen today when it was detonated as they drove by in three patrol cars.

A bomb explosion at a basketball game in the southern Philippines today killed up to 10 people and wounded at least 40 others, including the town mayor, who authorities said was the likely target of the attack.

A POWERFUL bomb hidden in a backpack exploded yesterday at an airport in the southern Philippines, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 100, including three Americans, authorities said. The government called it a “brazen act of terrorism.”

An airliner with 67 passengers on board has landed in the French city of Lyon after apparently being hijacked from Italy, French officials said.