Sorrento is a terrific base to explore the likes of Pompeii and the Isle of Capri, says Tony Clayton-Lea.

Tony Clayton-Lea compiles a list of some of the hot deals of offer in the Med, Greece,UK, Ireland, Italy or Spain for those looking for a bargain break.

TREASURES OF THE MED CRUISE

Graham Norton is joined by X-Men stars Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, with music from Eurovision hopeful Molly on BBC1 at 10.35pm.

Fish Bar at The Electric,

Katusha’s Luca Paolini launched a late attack to win the third stage of the Giro d’Italia and take the leader’s pink jersey.

Set amidst the rolling hills of Midwest America, Gus van Sant’s Promised Land (15A) stars Matt Damon as Steve Butler, a salesman who works for a corporation intent on buying up failing farmland in order to drill for gas.

In her recent films, Oscar-winning Danish director Susanne Bier has meditated on the ability of the human spirit to endure all-consuming grief.

“You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?” an enraged Italian coastguard chief shouted as the captain of the grounded Costa Concordia sat safe in a life raft and frantic passengers struggled to escape after the ship rammed into a reef off the Tuscan coast.

THE captain who allegedly abandoned the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner will be released from jail and placed under house arrest.

One person has died and another 30 were injured after a train derailed in the southern Italian city of Naples.

DUBLIN-based specialist tour operator Croatia Tours is one of the few Irish travel companies that can claim to be experiencing an increase in demand for the 2010 summer holiday season.

OZ-BUS, the overland service between London and Sydney, is back with a July 4 departure and the company says half of the seats for the trip are still available.

An appeal by a Co Clare woman against her conviction for soliciting a hit man to kill her partner and his two sons in 2006, opened at the Court of Criminal Appeal today.

IRISH Festivals used to revolve almost solely around music and drink, not necessarily in that order.

CONCORDE Travel has updated its 2009 Italy brochure, featuring holidays to Lake Garda and Sorrento.

THE totally Irish-owned travel company Topflight are ! ski specialists but they have moved carefully into the summer overseas holiday market during the last 20 years as well.

An unemployed man with an advanced finance degree who was despondent over his own financial problems shot and killed his wife, three children, mother-in-law and then himself in an upscale home in a gated community, Los Angeles police said today.

A Clare woman has been found guilty of soliciting a former Las Vegas poker dealer to kill her partner and his two sons while her co-accused Egyptian Essam Eid (aged 52) has been found guilty of demanding €100,000 with menaces from the intended victim.

SUNWAY River Cruise has just launched a number of winter specials, including a Christmas Wonderland Cruise.

A man whose partner is accused of conspiring with a Las Vegas poker dealer to organise his assassination and those of his two sons, has told a jury in the Central Criminal Court he decided not get married a second time after his solicitor told him prenuptial agreements had no legal standing in Ireland.

The jury in the trial of a Clare woman and a former Las Vegas poker dealer accused of conspiring to kill the woman’s partner and his two sons have heard that the prosecution believe they have an “overwhelming” case against the two accused.

BUDGET Travel has announced the launch of its new Caribbean winter brochure featuring the tropical resorts of Playa Dorada in the Dominican Republic and Cancun in Mexico.

DISCOVER Travel, a branch of East Cork Travel based in Midleton, has just released the company’s most comprehensive Asian brochure since entering that market just less than a decade ago.

DISCOVER Travel, a branch of East Cork Travel based in Midleton, has just released the company’s most comprehensive Asian brochure since entering that market just less than a decade ago.

Just like his Wicklow counterpart Mick O'Dwyer, Louth manager Eamonn McEneaney has named an unchanged team for Sunday's Leinster SFC first round replay at Croke Park (throw-in 2.10pm).

BELFAST boasts a shopping precinct to rival many of the fashionable cities in Europe, and tourism authorities are hoping to take advantage of the city’s Fashion Week, conveniently timed just after St Patrick’s Day.

Manager Pete McGrath has sounded a battle cry to his Ireland troops ahead of tomorrow's International Rules second Test by claiming: "We can beat Australia by 37 points."

THE Irish team have a number of issues to address ahead of Friday's second test against Australia in the International Rules Series.

A meeting on global whaling headed into its final day amid controversy as the US threw its support behind a proposal on how to manage whale-hunting if a 1986 ban on commercial whaling were to be lifted.

Japan proposed hunting nearly 3,000 minke whales a year in the Antarctic today, saying populations of the giant sea mammals in the southern oceans were healthy enough to sustain the losses.

IT may not herald a U-turn in property price trends but one of the most exclusive homes to come to the market in Ireland this year failed to sell at auction yesterday, despite an offer of €4m.

The hunt is on to find the person or persons who best represent the values of the raditional welcome in the Irish tourism business. Developed by Bord Fáilte in consultation with the industry, the Irish Welcome Awards recognise Ireland's tourism champions who have made the traditional Irish welcome and the Céad Míle Fáilte so famous the world over.