Star Trek Beyond 4/5

For the newest generation of Irish football fans, Euro ‘88 belongs to the remote past. France 2016 will be their first time, and just maybe, let’s hope, the best of times too.

The Naval Service is gearing up to save even more migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea this year as refugees pour into Libya from Middle East war zones following Turkey’s promise to cut people-smuggling operations across the Aegean into Greece.

Greece said yesterday it would speed up the creation of reception centres for up to 30,000 refugees to help cope with a sharp rise in numbers because of border closures in the Balkans that cut off the main migration route to wealthy western Europe.

A draft European Union plan to send back some migrants to Turkey has legal and moral flaws and could put vulnerable people at risk, the head of Amnesty International said, calling on Europe to take in more people seeking refuge instead.

The Nato Maritime Group is being ordered immediately into the Aegean Sea to help end smuggling of migrants between Turkey and Greece, the secretary general said.

At least 33 migrants attempting to reach Greece have drowned after two boats got into difficulties off the Turkish coast.

Seven bodies, including those of two children, were recovered from the sea off the eastern Aegean island of Kos yesterday after a boat carrying migrants sank, Greek authorities said.

Turkey’s foreign minister said Ankara’s patience with Russia “has a limit” after Moscow’s “exaggerated” reaction to a weekend naval incident between the two countries, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported.

AS if to remind delegates at the two-day summit of African and European leaders in Malta that it was called because 800 refugees drowned when a rogue ship sank, at least 14 more people, including seven children, desperately trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos, drowned yesterday when a boat sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast. Hopefully, the symbolism will bring a greater sense of realism to these deliberations.

The number of migrants and refugees entering Europe by sea last month was roughly the same as for the whole of 2014, United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Seventeen refugees drowned when their boat sank yesterday off the Turkish coast while headed for the Greek island of Kos, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Days after the world’s conscience was shocked by the image of a dead toddler washed up on a Turkish beach, all that was stopping more refugees from making the same crossing was the media frenzy on the shore.

About 2,000 migrants have rushed past baton-wielding police who were attempting to block them from entering Macedonia from Greece and several people were injured in the commotion.

 

Ireland’s biggest cement company, CRH and its Turkish partner Eren Holding have hired JP Morgan to sell their Turkish joint venture, according to reports.

EARLY CHRISTMAS

ONE of world’s rarest mammals, the Mediterranean monk seal, has returned to the Adriatic coast.

It was supposed to be a low season, holiday bargain, but Kusadasi proved to be a welcome surprise for Margaret Scully.

Playa Blanca, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras, who will take his plea for more time for the Greek economy to Paris and Berlin this week, has suggested his government could sell or lease some of the country’s islands to help revive a state-asset sales plan central to receiving international funds.

A yacht racing off the coasts of California and Mexico apparently collided with a much larger vessel, killing three crew members and leaving one missing, a sailing organisation said today.

Ferry services to Greek islands and Italy were halted today by a 48-hour strike that left thousands of islanders stranded and disrupted holidaymakers’ plans at the start of the country’s vital tourism season.

The former partner of a woman stabbed to death with her best friend in Turkey has arrived in the country to begin making arrangements to have their bodies brought home.

The former partner of a woman stabbed to death with her best friend in Turkey has left Ireland to travel to the country.

A woman and her best friend were stabbed to death on holiday in Turkey after she refused a waiter’s proposal to marry her 15-year-old daughter, sources said.

THE ex-partner of one of the two Irish women stabbed to death in Turkey has spoken of the concerns he had about the year-long relationship his 15-year-old daughter had with the alleged killer.

A woman and her best friend were stabbed to death on holiday in Turkey after she refused a waiter’s proposal to marry her 15-year-old daughter, sources said today.

The stabbing to death of two Irish women in Turkey may have happened after one of the dead women refused to allow the teenage murder suspect marry her daughter, local reports have said.

IT must be hard to score a hole in one when one’s in a hole – but can’t stop digging.

ON Easter Monday, at noon, newly released after a few days in the garage (by which I mean the hospital), I sat on a tussock in a warm spot by the bay and listened to the surf gently break and thanked the gods for being alive on such a day.

A Kurdish separatist was convicted today of a minibus blast in 2005 that killed five people including Waterford teenager Tara Whelan.

A small boat loaded with Afghan families smashed on to rocks and sank off an island in the Aegean, causing three women and five children to drown.

EXHAUSTED Greek firefighters battled around the clock for the fourth day to try and contain massive blazes north of Athens yesterday.

Exhausted Greek firefighters battled around the clock for the fourth day to try and contain massive blazes north of Athens today.

ZEUS, married to Hera, had a ‘fling’ with Io. For Io’s protection, Zeus turned her into a cow.

WHEN the sun shines you could be looking on the Greek islands and the Aegean, and even when Irish skies are overcast there’s something magical about Slea Head and the Blasket Islands.

Marine archaeologists have salvaged ancient wine vases piled on the hull of a 2,350-year-old cargo ship lying on the seabed off Cyprus’ southern shore, the island’s Antiquities Department said today.

Some 125,000 flag-waving Turks, mostly women, denounced the Islamic-rooted government today over its plans to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic headscarves in universities – a move the foreign minister said would expand Turkish freedoms.

At least 43 people died when a boat carrying illegal immigrants sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast, an official said today.

A boat carrying some 70 illegal immigrants sank off Turkey’s Aegean coast and at least 20 bodies washed up on the shore, the Anatolia news agency reported today.