The Costa Allegra cruise liner, stranded in the pirate-infested Indian Ocean after a fire aboard, is stable and upright while being pushed by the current, officials said.

TRAVEL agents around the country are taking on extra staff to deal with the large volume of holiday queries.

Vulnerable cargo ships off the coast of Somalia may be given their own armed guards by an EU task force being sent to combat the huge surge in piracy there.

HUNDREDS of protesters clashed with police yesterday ahead of this week’s Group of Eight meeting, as anti-globalisation activists challenged attempts by security officials to keep them away from the summit town of Heiligendamm.

German authorities are using scent tracking to keep tabs on possibly violent protesters against next month’s Group of Eight summit – a tactic that is drawing comparisons with the methods of former East Germany’s secret police.

THE younger sister of missing Dublin schoolgirl, Lynsey O’Brien, witnessed her falling overboard from a cruise liner off the Mexican coast in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Two small handmade explosive devices detonated in Milan near Carabinieri paramilitary police barracks on Tuesday night, an official said.

George Bush’s national security adviser insisted that the US president fully understood the threat of terrorism before September 11, 2001, but no intelligence foretold the deadliest attack on American soil.

DOCTORS have transplanted eight organs — a world first — into an Italian baby, who is in good condition six weeks after the operation.

Doctors have transplanted eight organs – a world first – into an Italian baby, who is in good condition six weeks after the operation.

Anti-riot agents have fired volleys of tear gas and rubber pellets at anti-globalisation demonstrators.

The Show Jumping Association of Ireland is to set up a committee to investigate the objection made by Conor Swail to the result of this year’s outdoor grand prix league.

More than 2,000 demonstrators marched in the rain shouting ‘‘Free the people, not the market’’ and ‘‘G8, shut it down!’’ at the end of a G8 summit in Canada, free of the kind of violence that left a protester dead last year.

Shoving matches between police and anti-globalisation protesters have broken out in two Canadian cities as initially peaceful demonstrations against the summit of the world’s richest countries turned testy.

Thousands of demonstrators Saturday poured into Barcelona ahead of a planned mass anti-globalisation rally as European leaders wrapped up a summit on economic reforms.

Tony Blair has touched down in Genoa, Italy, for brief talks with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

EU ministers will discuss next month a German proposal to create a European riot police corps to protect high-level meetings from anti-globalisation protesters.

The interior ministers of Germany and France want an urgent meeting with their colleagues across the EU to discuss how to prevent a repeat of the rioting that marred this weekend’s European summit in Sweden.

George W Bush and Vladimir Putin have agreed to exchange visits to the United States and Moscow in their first face-to-face meeting.