Munster find themselves in uncharted waters this week as they look to rebound from a chastening semi-final defeat that signalled the end of their European campaign and resume their quest for silverware in the Guinness PRO12.

Six Russians were killed and two others were injured when their snowmobile slammed into a fence and flipped over into a ditch during a night run down an Italian ski slope.

Plans to set up a European paramilitary police force based on the French gendarmes or Italy’s Carabinieri to support international peacekeeping missions top the agenda at a meeting for EU defence ministers opening today.

French police were today interrogating a man suspected of starting fires that swept through the hills behind the Riviera and killed at least four people.

At least 11 people died in north-east Italy today when dozens of cars and trucks piled into each other in heavy fog.