AFTER an admittedly disastrous spring the Irish summer has been quite respectable so far with reasonably warm days and nights and just occasional bouts of rain.

Ryanair has lost an appeal after a passenger claimed compensation for ash cloud disruption.

Kate and Gerry McCann met the UK's Home Secretary Theresa May to discuss the search for their missing daughter Madeleine, officials said today.

CRISTIANO RONALDO paid a surrogate mother to have his baby son, it was claimed yesterday.

A young girl resembling Madeleine McCann captured on CCTV film in a New Zealand shop is not the missing girl, police said today.

PORTUGUESE detectives failed to ask for any follow- up investigation after a girl resembling Madeleine McCann was caught on CCTV in New Zealand, it emerged yesterday.

Kate and Gerry McCann today criticised the “heartbreaking” failure by police to investigate new leads in their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance as they called for a full case review.

Kate McCann tonight said she was “trying to move forward” as a charity event was held to mark the 1,000th day since her daughter Madeleine went missing.

A Lisbon court has postponed the start of a libel action brought by the parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann against a former Portuguese detective.

IRISH budget airline Ryanair carried 5.84 million passengers last month — 13% more than a year earlier.

MADELEINE MCCANN’S parents launched a new appeal for information about their daughter focused on the area where she went missing nearly two years ago.

Madeleine McCann’s parents today launched a new appeal for information about their daughter focused on the area where she went missing nearly two years ago.

Portugal’s most senior detective says police are still gathering evidence in their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Private detectives hired by Kate and Gerry McCann are investigating the attempted abduction of a girl less than 30 miles from where Madeleine went missing, it emerged today.

One of Portugal’s most senior detectives is taking charge of the Madeleine McCann case, officials said today.

VIRGIN chief Richard Branson voiced faith yesterday in the embattled parents of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann, whom he said have faced “trial by innuendo” in the Portuguese press.

A van that exploded in north-eastern Spain was detonated by members of the Basque separatist group Eta when they realised police were on their trail, Spain’s Interior Ministry said today.

Police have confirmed that a girl spotted last month was the daughter of a Belgian man and not missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann, news reports said today.

Portuguese police and crime investigators believe a three-year-old British girl who went missing from a luxury resort in southern Portugal may have been abducted, officials said tonight.

Portuguese police and crime investigators believe a three-year-old British girl who went missing from a luxury resort in southern Portugal may have been abducted, officials said today.

A bull ran rampant in a town in southern Portugal today, injuring five people before being shot down by police, a news agency reported.

Police seized about eight tons of cocaine in an operation in southern Portugal today in what was the country’s largest ever drug haul.

Police today captured two crocodiles being kept as pets at a house in southern Portugal.

Hundreds of farmers, many of them on tractors, today staged a protest rally to demand more government help in coping with the country’s worst drought on record.

Lisbon recorded its driest January in more than a century as drought conditions gripped parts of Portugal, officials said today.

IRISH property is bad value and close to being over-priced, a leading Irish player in the Algarve claimed yesterday.

SMOKE drifted over the skies of the Algarve beaches in southern Portugal yesterday, as helicopters provided the soundtrack to a third day of wildfires.

THE streets of Cork city were thronged yesterday as 5,000 athletes took part in the 2003 Evening Echo Ladies Mini Marathon.

Two Irish students have been killed in an accident in southern Portugal when the car in which they were travelling was involved in a head-on collision with a train.