Carmel Murray has had a wanderlust since her 20s, culminating in solo trips to India for dental work. But, as she tells Margaret Jennings, there’s more to her travels than that.

CHARLIE Wilkins, the well known gardening columnist, will be leading an unusual Mediterranean cruise in September. The trip will include a flight from Cork to Barcelona, with two nights on terra firma, and seven further days and nights on the high seas, with the liner calling into such ports as Nice, Pisa/Florence, Rome, Naples and Sicily.

At least 18 children and four teachers drowned today and more than a dozen more children were missing after a boat carrying the group on a school trip capsized.

OUR driver wended his way through the narrow bustling streets of old Fort Cochin. I had given him the address of Maria George, an Indian cookery teacher who had promised to teach me some Keralan dishes.

More than half a million people from across the world are expected to attend the 50th birthday party of a Hindu spiritual leader who spends 18 hours a day hugging people.