More police are being deployed in Rome after robbers shot dead a man and his eight-month-old daughter outside their home.

AN international clerical abuse survivors group is calling on Irish bishops to release secret files as it pursues the Vatican for crimes against humanity at the Hague.

A FORMER Rwandan women’s empowerment minister has become the first woman to be found guilty of genocide and incitement to rape by an international tribunal.

POPE BENEDICT XVI sees the priestly sex scandal as a “test for him and the Church,” his spokesman says, as the Pope and his bishops around Europe used Holy Week’s solemn call for penitence to pledge transparency in dealing with the abuse of children.

A SENIOR Vatican figure has defended a decision not to defrock an American priest accused of molesting deaf boys, saying the lengthy trial process would have been “useless” because he was dying.

A partial drop in gale-force winds early today offered hard-pressed Greek firefighters a brief respite from the wildfires which have raged for two days north of Athens.

At least 13 people were killed when a freight train derailed and set off an explosion and fire in a small Italian town, officials said today.

A railway wagon filled with liquefied natural gas exploded when a freight train derailed in the middle of a small Italian town, setting off an inferno that killed at least 10 people and injured 50 others, officials said today.

BARCELONA’S Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta continued their respective bids to be fit for the Champions League final as they returned to squad training yesterday, but not at the same intensity as their team-mates.

Authorities in Rome have enforced a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol in a bid to stave off the threat of trouble between Manchester United and Barcelona fans.

The Serie A game between Roma and Cagliari scheduled for Sunday night at the Stadio Olimpico has been postponed.

Italian officials today said they intend to prosecute a Turkish man for hijacking a plane, despite his appeal for political asylum on the grounds that he is being persecuted as a Christian in Muslim Turkey.

An uneasy calm fell over Paris’ riot-hit suburbs today after a week of unrest by gangs of youths shooting at police and firefighters, starting fires and attacking symbols of the French state.

The former East Germany’s secret police used a total of eight agents over the years to report on Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the agency that oversees the Stasi’s files said today.

Rome’s security officials today banned a planned demonstration by a right-wing group seeking a pardon for former Nazi captain Erich Priebke, who was convicted for a wartime massacre of 335 civilians.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, considered a top contender to be the next Pope, made his final stump speech before being sequestered in the Sistine Chapel today, lashing out at the trends he said were taking root in the Roman Catholic Church.

Those in the running to succeed Pope John Paul II are known as the “papabili” – those worthy of becoming Pontiff. Prominent among them are:

Nearly 3,000 security officers and a mounted police squad will be patrolling the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, during this weekend’s visit by Pope John Paul II.

FAILING to hit home with their accusation that the Taoiseach was a drug pusher, the Green Party resorted to sticking tongues out at Bertie Ahern yesterday.

FRANCE'S Atlantic coast could be swamped with oil from the sunken tanker Prestige within days after high winds tore up an oil slick out at sea, authorities said yesterday.