THE autumn is upon us and you’re thinking of where to go for a quick break, a pick-me-up after the stresses of the summer and before the dark days of winter.

A SCATHING attack on Clonmel’s new flood relief scheme has been launched by the secretary of the Workman’s Boat Club in the Tipperary town.

UP to 25,000 visitors are expected to pour into Clonmel, Co Tipperary, this week for the biggest coursing event of the year but tomorrow they will be met by anti-blood sports protesters.

Dozens of alleged members of the US Gambino Mafia family have been arrested and charged with murders, drug running, robberies, extortion, and other crimes dating back to the 1970s.

PREPARATORY work on the long-awaited flood relief scheme in Clonmel is expected to be complete by the end of this year.

The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell today came under pressure in the Dáil after the latest fatal shooting – the third attack of its kind in just over a week.

A Garda investigation was under way today after a man was shot dead in Drogheda.

JAMES MASTERS, John Hayes and Fintan Goold will make their senior championship debuts as Cork throw down the gauntlet to Clare in Sunday’s Bank of Ireland, Munster football semi-final at Cusack Park, Ennis.

The people of Clonmel will only believe Government promises of a flood prevention scheme when it is up and running, writes John Murphy.

EXHAUSTED emergency services workers were still bailing out flood water from homes and businesses in Clonmel late last night after raging currents in the Suir deluged more than 100 homes and shops.

FOR centuries, Mostar’s stone bridge was an icon of ethnic diversity. Then, when shelling destroyed it in 1993, the ancient span came to symbolize the senseless brutality of Bosnia’s war.

An historic bridge reduced to rubble during the Bosnian war was being reopened today, nearly 11 years after it was destroyed by Croat forces.

WEST African troops and desperately needed aid flowed toward Liberia’s beleaguered capital yesterday, as relief groups jumped at deployment of the first peacekeepers to hurry food and medical supplies to Monrovia.

West African troops and desperately-needed aid flowed toward Liberia’s beleaguered capital today, as relief groups jumped at deployment of the first peacekeepers to hurry food and medical supplies to Monrovia.

Nigerian peacekeepers faced a daunting task today as they prepared to enter the Liberian capital Monrovia, which has been under rebel siege for two months.

Nigerian soldiers landed a few dozen at a time in a peace deployment that is planned to build to a 3,250-strong force with the goal of ending 14 years of carnage in Liberia under warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor.

THE vanguard of a West African force aiming at stopping Liberia’s brutal civil war landed yesterday at an airport on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia, which has been under rebel siege for two months.

The US has called upon Liberia’s neighbours and the United Nations to take the lead in dealing with the political turmoil in the West African nation.

Explosions rocked Liberia’s capital today as rebels and government forces battled at key crossings leading toward President Charles Taylor’s downtown stronghold.