Tropical Storm Noel triggered mudslides and floods in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, pushing the region’s death toll to 81 and forcing some parents to choose which of their children to save from the surging waters.

Jamaicans headed inland and tourists fled the country as the powerful Hurricane Dean appeared poised to make a direct hit on the island after a deadly and destructive march across the eastern Caribbean.

Spanish researchers say they have resolved a century-old mystery surrounding Christopher Columbus’s burial place, which both Spain and the Dominican Republic claim. Their verdict: Spain has the right bones.

TRUCKS dumped scores of bodies into a mass grave in a flood-ravaged Haitian city still littered with corpses, as officials said the death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne rose to more than 1,070 and could rise to 2,000.

Trucks dumped scores of bodies into a mass grave in a flood-ravaged Haitian city as officials said the death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne rose to more than 1,070 and could double again.

An earthquake today shook the flood-hit Dominican border town of Jimani, where torrents of water from a river that spilled its bank killed more than 440 people earlier this week.

THE caskets of dozens of children lined Jimani’s streets after floods swept away villages and sent families into the darkness and mud in a frantic search for loved ones among the 500 dead and hundreds missing.

The death toll from the floods that swept across the Caribbean island of Hispaniola – where Haiti and the Dominican Republic lie – rose to more than 500 today.

The Government has pledged to give €100,000 in aid to the victims of recent flooding in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

The death toll from flooding in the Dominican Republic and Haiti rose to at least 363 today as villagers desperately searched for loved ones feared swept away by the torrent of mud from swollen rivers.

ANNE LOUGHNANE (St. Raphael’s, Loughrea), set a new national junior and senior schools record in the 3,000m walk at the Kit Kat Irish Schools Championships at Tullamore on Saturday when the girls set three records.