FRIENDS and family will be the key to adjusting to life in the world outside captivity for kidnapped journalist Alan Johnston, former hostages said yesterday.

US President George Bush, greeted with a huge outpouring of affection in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, expressed strong support for the fledgling democracy today and said: “You’ve got a solid friend in America.”

A HOSPITAL patient accused of smashing his way into a home in Limerick and terrorising six children is due in court on Thursday.

A BIOLOGICAL, chemical or nuclear terrorist attack on a western city is “only a matter of time”, the head of the British home security service, MI5, said yesterday.

Two members of a British based humanitarian group that removes land mines were robbed of more than £60,000 (€87,000) in the former Soviet republic of Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia province.

Police in the former Soviet republic of Georgia were today investigating the kidnapping of a British businessman in the capital.

US troops have launched operations in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to train local forces in anti-terrorism tactics.

US soldiers have begun operations in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to train the country’s army in tactics to use against Islamic militants fighting for independence in the Pankisi Gorge.

Russia has banned imports of meat and dairy products from the European Union and the Baltics because of foot-and-mouth.