She was a woman of many names. Also known as ‘Mary O’Connor’, ‘Mary the Shop’, and ‘Mary the Pensioner’, it was the title of ‘Mary John B’ that charmed her the most.

The Naval Service LÉ Eithne has conducted its biggest migrant rescue operation to date when it took onboard 467 adults and children who had been trying to reach the EU in a dilapidated wooden barge and rubber raft.

Two men who live in Carrigaline have received notable appointments in the Naval Service, one as its boss and the other as captain of its newest vessel, LÉ Samuel Beckett, when it arrives in the spring.

The Washington Navy Yard is returning to nearly normal operations three days after it was the scene of a mass shooting in which a gunman killed 12 people.

Somali pirates who have been holding a hijacked ship for nearly two years killed a Syrian hostage crew member and wounded another to protest over a delayed ransom payment, a pirate leader said.

A cruise ship with 1,000 people on board that was disabled by a fire and was drifting in southern Philippine waters has been repaired and is headed towards Malaysia, the Philippine coast guard has said.

A Swedish charity accused American troops today of storming through a hospital in Afghanistan, breaking down doors and tying up staff.

Five car bombs that detonated simultaneously rocked Afghanistan’s largest southern city Kandahar today, killing at least 36 people died in the blast and more than 50 were wounded.

Rescuers searched by sea and air today for nearly 70 Haitians after an overloaded sailboat ran aground and capsized in reef-studded waters off the Turks and Caicos Islands, killing at least 15 migrants fleeing the poverty of their homeland.

Up to 85 people are missing after a boat carrying Haitian migrants capsized and sank off the Turks and Caicos Islands, the US Coast Guard said today.

The Pentagon today confirmed that an American soldier who went missing from his base in Afghanistan has been captured and identified him as a private from Idaho serving with an Alaska-based infantry regiment.

A helicopter crashed during take-off at southern Afghanistan’s largest Nato base today, killing 16 civilians in the latest in a string of deadly aircraft crashes in the country.

BOMB blasts killed four US marines in southern Afghanistan, where thousands of American troops have deployed in recent weeks as part of an offensive in the country’s dangerous drug-producing region, an official said yesterday.

Two Canadian troops and a Briton were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan, Nato said today.

Somali pirates have hijacked a British-owned cargo ship crewed by Ukrainians, a Nato spokesman said today.

A Portuguese warship has seized explosives from suspected Somali pirates after thwarting an attack on a Norwegian oil tanker, a Nato spokesman said today.

A joint Afghan-Nato operation in a volatile region in the country’s dangerous south has killed 40 militants, including the Taliban’s leader in that region, a government official said today.

A Pentagon jury will consider its a verdict on a former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden today as the US nears completion of its first war crimes trial since the Second World War.

OSAMA BIN LADEN’s former driver offered the terrorist leader aid and protection that helped make the September 11 attacks possible, prosecutors said yesterday in closing arguments at the first Guantanamo war crimes trial.

A former driver for Osama bin Laden knew the target of the fourth hijacked plane on September 11 2001, his war crimes trial was told.

HUNDREDS of pupils got that Top Gun feeling when a multi-million euro helicopter landed in their schoolyard yesterday.

MILITARY police are awaiting the all-clear from engineers before examining a historic building that was gutted by fire at the naval service headquarters in Co Cork.

TWO brothers are set to make history when they each take command of Irish naval service vessels.

THE crew of a trawler got an unwelcome catch yesterday when they scooped up an unstable World War II German mine, which was capable of sinking a large ship.

Investigators are sifting through wreckage for clues to what caused a US Navy Blue Angel jet to crash into homes during an air show in South Carolina.

A US Navy jet crashed during an air show in South Carolina, plunging into a neighbourhood of small homes and caravans and killing the pilot.

The chairman of the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee and two Republican colleagues have asked the Pentagon to remove embedded CNN reporters in Iraq after the network broadcast a video showing snipers targeting American soldiers.

Two US Navy ships exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates today off the coast of Somalia, killing one suspect and wounding five others, the navy said.

Romanian aviation officials and the military denied reports today that the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in south-east Romania was used by the CIA as a detention facility for suspected terrorists.

Fights and rubbish fires broke out, rescue helicopters were shot at and anger mounted across New Orleans today, as National Guardsmen in armoured vehicles poured in to help restore order across this increasingly desperate and lawless city.

Osama bin Laden’s alleged bodyguard and chauffeur today becomes Guantanamo Bay’s first terror suspect brought before a US military commission that allows for secret evidence and no government appeals.

A WOMAN held her baby above her head for an hour, three people shared one lifejacket and two children held on to their dead mother’s body to stay alive after their plane crashed in the Bahamas.

The three top Shiite Muslim clerics threatened by a mob in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf were safe today after they were rescued by tribal supporters, a cleric in Kuwait said.

Thunderous explosions rocked Baghdad today and a towering column of orange smoke rose over the city as the coalition forces unleashed their most powerful bombardment in days.

Japanese police were to continue questioning an American Air Force sergeant who is under suspicion in the alleged rape of a woman in Okinawa.

The commander of the USS Greenville has been blamed for the fatal collision with a Japanese trawler.

Nine people are missing after a Japanese fishing research vessel was hit by a surfacing US Navy submarine off Hawaii.