Egyptian security forces killed 12 Mexicans and Egyptians and injured 10 “by accident”, mistaking a tourist convoy for militants they were chasing in the country’s western desert, the ministry of interior said.

Europe has failed to agree how to share the burden of refugees daily entering the EU, as five countries either shut their borders or introduced border controls, leaving thousands of migrants in limbo and increasing pressure on other countries.

An Irish naval crew has rescued another 225 people trying to cross the Mediterranean.

The crew of LÉ Niamh will return home on Friday, October 2, but it is still unknown if the Government will send a replacement ship out to the Mediterranean Sea to aid the EU-led operation to save migrants attempting to make the crossing from North Africa into Europe.

It is a sunny morning on Sicily’s east coast and Mount Etna is a postcard, rising from a green-blue sea up through olive groves, orange orchards and steep hill towns to ascend a towering snowy cone ringed by cotton-wool clouds.

The Naval Service’s flagship LÉ Eithne had a record-breaking day yesterday when she picked up a further 647 refugees who were packed into two dangerously unsafe wooden barges.

The images of migrants being rescued by the LE Eithne off the Libyan coast (‘Irish navy ship rescues 201 migrants in Med’, Irish Examiner. May 29) stand in marked contrast to those of body bags and coffins which dominated the international media just a few short weeks ago.

EU countries would face international refugee quotas under proposals to be unveiled this week.

I admire the courage of Deputies Clare Daly and Mick Wallace in taking a stand against the use of Shannon airport by military aircraft suspected of carrying munitions or playing a part in so-called "renditions".

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.

Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill reflects on recent political responses to the crisis of migrant voyages on the Mediterranean and how inaction has added to the rising death toll.

At least 70 people have drowned after two boats carrying dozens of migrants to Europe capsized near the Libyan capital, coast guard officials said.

Dozens of asylum-seekers on a boat that sank near the Italian coast last month with the loss of 366 lives were raped and tortured in Libya before starting their journey, the police said yesterday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said the Irish man held captive in Algeria has contacted his family to tell them he is “safe and well” and is no longer a hostage.

Seven hostages are alive in Algeria, including three Belgians, two Americans, a Briton and a Japanese citizen, according to Islamist militants.

An Irish man who was kidnapped along with a group of colleagues in Algeria is a 36-year-old Irish passport holder who is a resident of Northern Ireland.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has today called for the immediate release of an Irish citizen who is reported to have been among a group of oil workers kidnapped in Algeria this morning.

The only man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has been buried with little fanfare near the Libyan capital.

Gunmen loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have crossed the Libyan border from Algeria and attacked revolutionary forces in a town near the frontier, killing six people, officials said.

IRISH authorities are to evacuate 1,000 civilians by chartered ship from the besieged Libyan city of Misrata.

THE UN has sent food for 50,000 people to west Libya as aid groups scrambled to reach trapped civilians and rebels put the death toll from two months of fighting at 10,000.

LIBYAN rebels begged for more NATO air strikes, saying they faced a massacre from government artillery barrages on the besieged city of Misrata, but Western allies squabbled over how to respond.

LIBYAN rebels pushed further west last night to retake more territory abandoned by Muammar Gaddafi’s retreating forces, which have been weakened by Western air strikes.

With US and coalition forces bombarding Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces from the sea and air, the cost for the first day alone of the operation was well over $100 million (€70.3m) with the total price tag expected to grow much higher the longer the strikes continue, analysts said.

LIBYAN rebels abandoned another key town yesterday under heavy shelling from advancing government forces, as international backing grew only slowly for a no-fly zone over the country.

Two ferries carrying foreigners trying to leave strife-torn Libya were waiting to leave Tripoli today, delayed by officialdom and rough seas, while a Russian-chartered ferry arrived at a port further east.

The nine-year-old Dutch boy who miraculously survived a plane crash in Libya returned to the Netherlands to rebuild his young life without his parents and brother.

The boy who survived a plane crash that killed 103 people in the Libyan capital is in satisfactory condition after surgery on his shattered legs, doctors said today.

A plane with 104 people on board crash landed today at the airport in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

STUDENTS used the internet in a record 56 countries to check their Leaving Certificate results yesterday.