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.

CROAT police have arrested a man caught smuggling 50 NATO-issue rocket-launched grenades on a suspected arms run for the Real IRA.

LOOKING tired in the sweltering heat, Pope John Paul II praised families as the bedrock of society yesterday as he celebrated Mass on his tour of Croatia.