Maps based on painstaking analysis of medieval papal taxes have helped create a clearer picture of population and wealth in Ireland 700 years ago.

Maps based on painstaking analysis of medieval papal taxes have helped create a clearer picture of population and wealth in Ireland 700 years ago.

The bodies of Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, killed in shelling while trapped in Syria, left the country on board a French plane to Paris.

Tens of thousands of Syrians carrying olive branches and calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime have poured into the flashpoint city of Hama, where the US and French ambassadors travelled in a strong show of support for the protest movement.