Simon Zebo admits he would have little difficulty in settling into a new life as a rugby player in France, but the Munster and Ireland wing is postponing all thoughts on his club future until after the upcoming World Cup.

UCC French lecturer Prof Grace Neville recounts how the sinking of the Lusitania shocked France

THIS Sunday, runners of all abilities will gather in to run the Irish race of the Wings for Life World Run. 

Spring is late this year but at last the magnolias are staging their pink and white displays; the flowers of some species reach a third of metre in diameter.

Simon Zebo has hardly had time to take his seat when the first question hurtles towards him, says Brendan O’Brien.

A call from Examiner Towers on Tuesday. What are you rabbiting on about this week? Presume you’re looking back at Saturday?

IF your getaway to Bali was shunned in favour of Bantry Bay, or trip to the Seychelles postponed (until further notice) for Salthill, don’t despair.

AS we stagger bruised and blinking into the cold financial dawn of 2013, it’s hard to be optimistic.

Tropical Storm Rafael has formed over the eastern Caribbean Sea, and warnings have been issued for numerous Caribbean islands.

A potential hurricane is posing a threat to next week’s Republican National Convention in Florida, which culminates in the nomination of Mitt Romney for presidential candidate.

Six rowers have been rescued from a life raft in the North Atlantic after their boat capsized.

Six sailors, one Irish and the others British, were adrift in a life raft in the North Atlantic after their rowing boat capsized, coastguards said last night.

Rescuers began a race against time to save the Haiti earthquake survivors today as a trickle of aid began arriving in the country.

Portsmouth 1 Coventry 1

Portsmouth 1 Coventry 1

France’s minister for overseas departments will urge the government to quickly authorise emergency funds to help Martinique recover from torrential rains that flooded towns and started landslides.

Protesters on the Caribbean island of Martinique turned violent for the second night in a row as protests continued over high prices and low pay.

A funeral for a murdered union activist turned into a demonstration by around 3,000 mourners on Guadeloupe, who demanded better treatment of the Caribbean island from France’s government.

A relative calm returned to violence-torn Guadeloupe today after France announced a multi-million pound aid package aimed at easing the growing crisis.

Rioters shot at police and stormed a town hall in a third night of violence on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

A protester was shot dead on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe today as weeks of strikes turned into street violence.

Strikes that have crippled France’s Caribbean islands burst into violent clashes as police battled protesters angry at high prices and resentful of a tiny white elite on lands better known for beachside holidays.

South American drug cartels see this country as a vulnerable entry point, writes Cormac O’Keeffe.

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.

Alarmed tourists jammed Caribbean airports for flights out of Hurricane Dean’s path as the storm threatened to engulf Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Hurricane Dean barrelled across the eastern Caribbean today and took aim at Hispaniola, Jamaica and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, with forecasters saying it could turn into a monster Category 5 storm within 72 hours.

HURRICANE Dean grew into a major storm with 200km/h winds yesterday after it smashed into the Caribbean islands, knocking out power and setting off landslides before heading toward the oil and gas rigs of the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Dean roared through small Caribbean islands today, tearing away roofs, flooding streets and killing three people.

Hurricane Dean is heading towards Caribbean islands today with 100mph winds.

A hurricane watch was issued for a portion of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean as Tropical Storm Dean slowly moved across the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said.

France will rewrite a much-contested law that requires textbook publishers to put an upbeat spin on France’s colonial past, President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday.

PREMIERSHIP stars Thierry Henry and Djibril Cisse scored as France came from 2-0 down to beat Costa Rica 3-2 in Martinique.

Arsene Wenger is ready to unleash Robin van Persie on Sunderland again tomorrow at Highbury.

Arsenal striker Thierry Henry tonight explained why he wants to play for France in their forthcoming friendly against Costa Rica in Martinique.

ARSENE WENGER cannot banish fears over Thierry Henry's future amid the striker's reluctance to hold contract talks until next summer.

ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger has labelled France’s friendly against Costa Rica on November 9 in Martinique as “absolutely scandalous.”

US EVANGELIST Pat Robertson may have apologised, but his call for the US to assassinate Hugo Chavez is playing into the Venezuelan leader’s political hands, bolstering his claim that Washington wants to kill him, putting him in the international limelight and probably boosting his popularity at home.

French specialists joined an investigation into the crash of an airliner that killed 160 in Venezuela, while Colombia grounded the airline that offered the charter flight to holidaymakers from the French Caribbean island of Martinique.

VENEZUELAN investigators yesterday picked through the wreckage of a plane that crashed with 160 people on board, trying to determine what caused the engines to fail and sent the jet plunging from the sky in the country’s deadliest air disaster in history.

France’s foreign minister said today it could take time to identify the bodies of the passengers on the West Caribbean Airways plane that crashed in Venezuela, killing all 160 aboard.

Venezuelan investigators are picking through the shattered wreckage of a plane that crashed with 160 people on board, trying to determine what caused the engines to fail and sent the jet plunging from the sky in the country’s deadliest air disaster in history.