A specialist team has flown out to Sicily to offer counselling to crew members on LÉ Niamh, who have been given a four-day break from migrant rescue operations.

The migrants would not take the mushroom and vegetable soup the crew dished up to them, as they were suspicious of what was in it. So the naval service was forced to improvise quickly.

The Naval Service LÉ Eithne has conducted its biggest migrant rescue operation to date when it took onboard 467 adults and children who had been trying to reach the EU in a dilapidated wooden barge and rubber raft.

Around 40 migrants died in the Mediterranean on Sunday, according to survivors of the journey who arrived on the southern Italian island of Sicily, local Save the Children spokeswoman Giovanna Di Benedetto said.

The Save the Children aid group is reporting another migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean, with survivors saying many of their fellow passengers fell out of a rubber boat and are feared to have drowned as a rescue vessel neared.

Prosecutors have blamed the Tunisian captain of a fishing boat for causing the deaths of hundreds of migrants locked below decks when his vessel capsized in the Mediterranean in the weekend shipwreck that has shocked Europe.

Rescue crews searched yesterday for survivors and bodies from what could be the Mediterranean’s deadliest migrant tragedy ever, as hundreds more migrants took to the sea undeterred and EU leaders said they would hold an emergency summit on Thursday to address the crisis.

Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, has erupted again, showering volcanic ash on towns dotting the mountain’s slopes and nearby Taormina.

Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, has erupted again, lighting up the sky over much of eastern Sicily and shooting up a towering column of ash.

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano snaps a shot of Dublin's fair city during a rare break in the clouds.

Former Italian goalkeeper Walter Zenga has put himself forward as a surprise candidate for the job of Irish manager.

Six people died when a boat carrying around 100 migrants ran aground on a sandbar off Sicily.

Ireland may not have a representative in next season’s EuroHockey League after Cork Harlequins’ European adventure turned into a nightmare in Vienna.

Blame the referee — we all do it.

There’s a very special event coming up in Cork, Galway and Waterford over the next few weeks.

THREE Italian brothers suffered heart attacks on the same day, two of them dying as a result.

THINGS are afoot at SuperValu.

WHO was the first person to learn the Ireland team to face Australia once Declan Kidney had signed off on his first XV?

SALVATORE Licitra, a tenor known in his Italian homeland as the “new Pavarotti” for his potent voice and considerable stamina, has died after nine days in a coma following a motor scooter accident in Sicily.

ITALY warned it was facing a refugee and humanitarian emergency, with some 15,000 Tunisians having arrived in recent weeks and fears that the start of US and European airstrikes on Libya could unleash even more migrants.

AC Milan defender Alessandro Nesta will be sidelined for three weeks after dislocating his left shoulder during his team’s 2-0 triumph over Cesena yesterday.

Italy’s Mount Etna has come back to life with a brief eruption sending lava down its slopes and a cloud of ash into the sky.

AT the turn of the last century, as the hem of American society was dampened by wave after wave of European immigrants, the Irish stretched out their legs beneath the table, threw a cap onto the coat hook behind the closing door and made themselves at home.

The volcano of Ischia, a resort island famed for its thermal waters off the coast of Naples, could potentially erupt, Italian disaster experts said.

TOPFLIGHT have announced sponsorship of a Ski Weather Forecast which will be presented by Martin King live on TV3 each Wednesday and Thursday at 7.58pm until the end of the ski season in March.

DUBLIN Airport has been hit more than any other airport in Europe over the last year as 19 routes were cut.

A pack of feral dogs terrorising an Italian town have killed a boy of 10 and severely mauled a tourist.

ON rereading my letter (January 5), I can see how Colm Burke MEP misunderstood what I said (Letters, January 23).

DOWN exhibitor, Desmond Gibson, Dromara, had a successful outing to the Iverk Show in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, where he won the Tullamore Dew brood mare and foal All Ireland championship.

The Italian government was ordered to pay nearly €100,000 to a gay man who received a driver’s licence for the disabled after he volunteered information on his sexual orientation to military authorities, the man and a gay-rights group said today.

Italian police today arrested scores of suspected mobsters in raids in eastern Sicily, including the man authorities said was the Mafia chief in the area.

Football is being made a scapegoat for a deeper problem in Italian society, according to AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf.

Italian sports minister Giovanna Melandri has called for club football to be halted for several weeks in order to crack down on violence in the sport.

THE prestigious breeders’ championship at the Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show was won by a nine-year-old bay mare owned by Margaret Jeffares, Ballykelly House, Drinagh, Co Wexford.

POLAND and Ukraine will host the European soccer championship in 2012 after UEFA awarded them the tournament ahead of Italy and another joint bid from Hungary and Croatia yesterday.

Early arriving Manchester United fans enjoyed a trouble-free night in Rome despite the row that has erupted over the potential for trouble at tonight’s Champions League tie at the Stadio Olimpico.

Alex Ferguson is confident Manchester United’s Champions League trip to Rome will pass off peacefully.

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has backed the 10,000 fans he predicts are travelling to Milan to preserve the club’s reputation.

Celtic supporters were today definitively warned that home sections of the San Siro will be out of bounds to them for next week’s Champions League showdown with AC Milan.

UEFA have confirmed the second leg of Celtic‘s Champions League clash against AC Milan will take place in the San Siro.

Celtic and Scotland were kept waiting last night after a meeting between Italian Football League representatives and state police officials ended without any announcement on whether stadiums in the country would be reopened.

UEFA are now confident that Celtic and their supporters will get the go-ahead to travel to Milan for next month’s Champions League crunch match. The Scottish champions are due to face AC Milan at the San Siro stadium on March 7, a fixture which at one stage looked set to be moved out of Italy.

Celtic defender Stephen McManus is hoping for a family affair when the Hoops take on AC Milan in the second leg of their Champions League clash on March 7.

CELTIC could face a trip to Switzerland next month after the Stade de Geneve was proposed as an alternative venue for their Champions League ‘away’ clash with AC Milan.