WHEN Peter the Great decided, in the early 1700s, that Russia needed access to the Baltic Sea, he built a port city on the river Neva, on the Gulf of Finland. 

They’re not quite in holiday mode, but Cork City will take to the beach today as they begin their Europa League campaign, and it’s a boy from Brazil who threatens to derail the European adventure.

Photos of a Russian jet coming within a few feet of a US air force reconnaissance jet over the Baltic Sea have been released by the US European Command.

Sinn Féin has said there is an urgent need for a referendum on Irish unity as the British government has "refused to listen" to the majority of people in Northern Ireland over Brexit.

Arms control is not an imperative for tranquil times but rather a tool for building — or rebuilding — trust between adversaries, write Volker Perthes and Oliver Meier

Russia’s military rejected criticism by US European Command that a Russian jet had made aggressive maneuvers near a US reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea, a second incident in the region between the Cold War-era foes in the past week.

THAILAND: When the Thai military says cadets cannot bring phones to training, they mean it.

Mohammed Ali Zonoobi bows his head as the priest pours holy water over his black hair. “Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds?” pastor Gottfried Martens asks the Iranian refugee. “Will you break away from Islam?”

For a man not renowned as having ‘sea legs’, it would be a lot easier to book a flight to take a trip from Cork to his home town in north Germany.

Sweden has scrambled fighter jets to intercept two Russian military planes flying near the country’s airspace over the Baltic Sea.

On June 4, 1919, HM Submarine L55 sank in the Baltic Sea. L55 had been targeting two Bolshevik warships. It is unclear whether the submarine was sunk by Bolshevik gunfire or from straying into a British-laid minefield.

WATCH OUT, BMW, a new German rival is on the scene: The sputtering, yet lovable Trabant is getting an electric makeover 25 years after the country’s reunification.

Nato member countries approved a new interim quick-reaction military force yesterday to protect themselves from Russia or other threats, the alliance’s chief said.

Sweden has confirmed that a small foreign submarine illegally entered its waters last month, though it is still unclear which country was behind the intrusion, officials said.

Swedish authorities have called off their week-long search for a submarine in the Stockholm archipelago.

Sweden’s biggest submarine hunt since the dying days of the Soviet Union has put countries around the Baltic Sea on edge.

Lapland isn’t just about Santa’s grotto and husky sleigh rides. The area has loads to offer in the summer too.

Anyone who reads Alex Renton’s piece this morning (Deep End: What rapid changes means for our seas, pages 13, 14 and 15) cannot but be concerned about the destruction he describes; anyone who reads the piece and thinks about how we reached this dangerous point and how little we are doing to reverse the unfolding apocalypse — not by any means too strong a phrase — cannot but be frightened and angry.

The disaster we’ve wrought on the world’s oceans may be irrevocable, says Alex Renton.

A US missile cruiser, the Vella Gulf, has entered the Black Sea in what is being described as ’a move to promote peace and stability in the region’ by the American Navy.

The mystery of the golden Amber Room continues to shine, says Kya deLongchamps

Top diplomats have agreed to take immediate steps toward calming tensions in Ukraine, Russia’s foreign minister says.

Nato’s foreign ministers have ordered an end to civilian and military co-operation with Russia and told their generals and admirals to quickly devise ways to better protect alliance members that feel threatened by Moscow.

We don’t yet know what Putin’s real agenda is generally with Ukraine and specifically with Crimea. But it echoes the murky events that eventually led to the first global war, writes James G Neuger

Fourteen dead cows that washed up on the beaches of Denmark and Sweden were probably dumped overboard by the crew of a Lebanese ship after it encountered bad weather, Danish police said.

The savage coastal storm powered by hurricane-force gusts that hit Britain also struck western Europe, causing at least 15 deaths.

The savage coastal storm powered by hurricane-force gusts that hit Britain and western Europe, causing at least nine deaths, including six in Germany.

Lithuania’s EU presidency will be impacted by issues it is concerned with, writes Ann Cahill.

And so the tricolour bids farewell to the tri-city and, notwithstanding the painful pleasure of watching the scintillating Spaniards dismantle Ireland on Thursday night, a fond farewell it is to Gdynia, Sopot and Gdansk as we prepare to hit the road south today for a last visit to Poznan.

Hard to believe, but it was this very day 24 years ago that the Republic of Ireland thumbed its nose at the mighty Soviet empire with a display of skill and conviction in Hanover that, while lacking the desired result, kept our hopes of qualification very much alive.

Jon Walters is in the running for a starting place against Spain on Thursday as Giovanni Trapattoni goes in search of “redemption” after Ireland’s opening night defeat against Croatia.

You’ve the squad memorised, and the tactics sussed. Ben Lyttleton and Iain MacIntosh help broaden fans’ minds a little further with some topographical titbits on the other 15 nations at Euro 2012.

The Baltic Sea port town of Gdynia turned out in force to welcome Giovanni Trapattoni and his players to their home from home and tournament base for the European Championship finals.

Callum Roberts warns we are destroying our seas and need to urgently change our ways. Val Cummins argues that we should heed his warnings

For Irish football, this is the calm before the storm.

The Republic of Ireland will hold a training session open to the public on June 5, the squad’s first full day at their European Championship base camp in Gdynia in Poland.

FOR more than 10 years the Irish Examiner has been reporting on the problems of a special care unit for troubled teenage girls just outside Cork.

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI and Marco Tardelli will travel to Poland this week to assess Ireland’s base camp options for the European Championship finals next summer.

Russia will aim new missiles at US defence sites in Europe if Washington goes ahead with a planned shield, president Dmitry Medvedev said today.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition suffered a new blow as Germany’s main opposition parties celebrated gains in a state election.

The European Union has banned oil imports from Syria in a move that will cost the embattled regime millions of euro a day as it uses deadly force to try to crush a five-month-old uprising.