More prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are sharing meals and recreation time with fellow inmates – an easing of conditions that led to fewer assaults against guards at the US base in Cuba, the new commander said.

Suspected al-Qaida-linked militants killed seven policemen in an ambush today after their comrades shot to death two government soldiers in a separate attack in the southern Philippines, security officials said.

Somali pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at another US cargo ship in a failed hijack attempt.

NAVY divers will leave the harbour in Dunmore East before daylight this morning and make their way towards the Irish Lights vessel, the Granuaile, which travelled from Cork last night.

Videos capturing the actions of a US military squad assigned to subdue disobedient prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have emerged as key pieces of evidence as American politicians look into complaints of abuse.

CREWS combed suburban gardens and remote Texas woodlands for the remains of space shuttle Columbia yesterday as experts focused on a heat surge on the left side of the doomed spacecraft in the early investigation of why it disintegrated.