Rescue crews were searching for Chinese coal miners missing today after a gas explosion killed 203 people in the deadliest mining disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.

A gas explosion in a coal mine in China’s northeast killed at least 203 miners, the government said today, in the deadliest such disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen has stressed that military action is not inevitable in Iraq.

FOR the past two years Ireland has been a member of the Security Council of the United Nations. It has been a momentous couple of years and in time people may question the role we played in what could well be the build-up to many years of strife.