For many thousands of years humankind has delved deep into the earth in search of tin, coal, copper, and precious stones. And the treasures uncovered have played a significant part in humanity’s evolution. The Bronze Age, for instance, produced some incredibly beautiful artefacts and the first durable weapons, while coal fuelled the accelerated expansionism of the Industrial Revolution.

AN Irishman is to lead a daring bid to salvage a shipwreck containing 200 tonnes of silver worth €170 million about 300 miles of the coast.

Dozens of teenagers and crew on board a tall ship stranded in stormy seas off the Isles of Scilly, off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula in the UK, face a third night at sea.

A CORNISH fisherman who suffered a heart attack 400km off the Irish coast and outside the range of any rescue helicopter, has thanked the Irish Coast Guard and the crew of a Spanish hospital ship for saving his life.

ONE of Europe’s top drug enforcement chiefs yesterday warned governments to keep up a united front in the fight against South American cocaine cartels.

LAST weekend, we joined friends and their children, 13 and 11, who are holidaying on the Cornish coast.

A STORM rushing in from the Atlantic lashed Wales and southern England yesterday as high winds and tides brought the risk of coastal flooding.

An environmental pressure group is encouraging air passengers to boycott a new British Airways domestic service by offering those booked on its first flight free rail tickets instead.

A search has begun for signs of pollution after 50 containers were thrown into the sea when a cargo ship beached off the coast of Devon in England.

Crowds have gathered in the English port of Falmouth today to welcome sailor Ellen MacArthur home after her record-breaking voyage around the globe.

IRISH fishermen were celebrating the closure of a large chunk of their fishing waters off the south east coast of Ireland last night.

THE countdown has begun for a flight by two British pilots to the edge of space in the world’s biggest manned helium balloon, it emerged yesterday.

A tanker which ran aground on New Year's Day causing 150 villagers to be evacuated from their homes has been successfully re-floated.

Cornwall has been shaken by an earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale.