FEARS are growing about the wellbeing of kidnapped Irish priest Fr Michael Sinnott, who is entering his third week of captivity in the Philippines today.

RELEASED GOAL aid worker Sharon Commins’s thoughts were for the need to continue humanitarian work and for the people of Sudan who helped secure her release, when she spoke just hours after the end of her 107-day captivity.

Talks with bandits who kidnapped two aid workers in Darfur are going well and the hostages may be freed soon, according to the Sudanese government.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said the Sudanese government is continuing to work to secure the release of Irish aid worker Sharon Commins and has ruled out an armed rescue attempt.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs will today continue talks with the Sudanese government in an attempt to secure the release of Sharon Commins.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Michéal Martin will today hold talks with Sudanese government officials in an effort to secure the release of Irish aid worker, Sharon Commins.

THE charity Concern is worried people may be discouraged from becoming aid workers because of the increasingly precarious nature of the job in some countries.

AT the start of every day in the close-knit community of Clontarf, families come together to offer prayers for the safe release of kidnapped aid worker, Sharon Commins.

THE Sudanese government still expects the imminent release of aid workers Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki despite a ransom demand of US$2 million (about €1.43m) from the gang holding the women captive.

The kidnappers of Irish aid worker Sharon Commins are reportedly demanding a $2m (€1.43m) ransom for the release of the Dubliner and her Ugandan colleague, Hilda Kiwuki.

It is thought there has been some progress made in the efforts to free a kidnapped Irish aid worker in Sudan.

The family of kidnapped Irish aid worker Sharon Commins are due to hold talks with the Sudanese Ambassador to Ireland later today.

THE parents of missing Irish aid worker Sharon Commins are to meet the Sudanese Ambassador to Ireland tomorrow after he said the net was tightening on the gang who kidnapped her.

THE Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday cooled speculation that the kidnappers who abducted an Irish aid worker and her Ugandan colleague at gunpoint last Friday may be seeking a ransom.

A delegation from the Department of Foreign Affairs is due to arrive in Sudan later to negotiate the release of two foreign aid workers.

Amnesty International today warned that 2.2 million people face the risk of starvation and disease following yesterday’s decision by the Sudanese government to expel more than 10 aid agencies.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has condemned the Sudanese Government's decision to expel 10 international humanitarian organisations from Darfur.

Sudanese government planes have bombed a southern Darfur area, burning homes and sending thousands fleeing, according to peacekeepers and rebels.

The head of the GOAL aid agency, John O'Shea, is again criticising the international community over its response to the latest reported atrocity against refugees in Darfur.

Sudanese government forces have attacked a Darfur refugee camp and killed civilians, according to reports received by the UN.

IRISH soldiers are risking their lives in Africa as a consequence of China’s thirst for political muscle and oil.

I AM writing in response to Antony Barnwell’s short letter (‘Peace enforcers’, July 1) and in defence of Ann Cahill and media commentators like her.

Dozens of gunmen in jeeps ambushed UN-African Union peacekeepers in the Darfur region, killing at least one and wounding 23 others, a UN spokeswoman said.

CHINA is finally beginning to feel some heat over its shameful silence on atrocities in Darfur. President Hu Jintao has been stirred to call on the Sudanese government to take steps toward peace.

SENDING in troops to protect refugees and aid agencies at the very heart of a humanitarian crisis may seem like an obvious move, but for Ireland and Europe it has been a very controversial one.

As the US continues its long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, victims of the September 11 2001 terror attacks are involved in their own bin Laden pursuit - for his family’s vast fortune.

It is up to Africa to help Kenya resolve a dispute over elections that has sparked spiralling violence, the African Union chief said as the continent’s leaders converged in Ethiopia for a summit.

Negotiators moved to lower expectations ahead of the opening of the Darfur peace talks today, with almost none of the key rebel leaders present to negotiate an agreement with the Sudanese government.

Sudan will announce a ceasefire at the start of peace talks with rebels on Saturday aimed at ending the four and a half year conflict in Darfur, Sudan's UN ambassador said.

A Darfur town has been razed to the ground since it came under the control of Sudanese troops this week, the United Nations says.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern is to seek assurances at the UN HQ in New York tomorrow that 350 Irish peacekeeping troops being deployed to Chad will be safe.

Sudan insisted that African countries have offered enough troops for a peacekeeping force in Darfur despite UN concerns that the mission will not be effective without contributions from outside the continent.

On the eve of a high-level UN meeting on Darfur, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court urged world leaders to “break their silence” and put justice at the top of the agenda because there will be no peace as long as alleged war criminals remain free in Sudan.

The Sudanese government has begun filing a defamation lawsuit against Amnesty International for a report on torture against political prisoners in the country, the justice minister said today.

In a rare, high-profile visit to the West, Sudan’s president today met with the pope and Italy’s premier, and offered to declare a cease-fire with Darfur rebels to coincide with the start of UN-backed peace talks next month.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir today said his government was ready for a cease-fire with rebel forces at the start of peace talks scheduled for next month in Libya over the conflict in Darfur.

A British minister said he had pressured China to improve its human rights record, telling officials a failure to do so could affect their staging of next year’s Olympic Games.

The UN Security Council unanimously approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur to try to help end the bloodshed in the Sudanese region.

Key players in the Darfur crisis are meeting in Paris today in a bid to build a unified international response to violence in the troubled region of Sudan - although Sudan itself has not been invited.

Climate change is partly to blame for the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, where droughts have provoked fighting over water sources, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon claims.

Amnesty International today called for multilateral sanctions against Sudan and the immediate deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to end the bloodshed in the country’s war-torn Darfur region.

US president George Bush will impose new economic sanctions against Sudan and call for a United Nations resolution to make the country stop stalling international efforts to halt the bloodshed in Darfur, top administration officials said today.

The woman bidding to be France’s first female president erupted in anger during a highly-anticipated TV duel with her conservative rival.

Arrest warrants for a Sudanese government minister and a janjaweed militia leader suspected of committing war crimes in Darfur, have been issued by the International Criminal Court.