There was an echo of Ballyporeen when the former first lady of the United States, Nancy Reagan, was laid to rest beside her husband Ronald in the grounds of his presidential library in California over the weekend.

A man believed to be the leader of the Gulf drug cartel, which controls some of the most valuable and violently contested smuggling routes along the US border, was arrested by Mexican marines and paraded before the public.

Thousands of tourists were confined to their hotel rooms today, sheltering from high winds and driving rain as Hurricane Dean tore into Mexico.

HURRICANE Emily was gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as it took aim at north-eastern Mexico and south Texas, a day after ripping roofs off resort hotels and stranding thousands of tourists in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Hurricane Emily stranded thousands of tourists along Mexico’s luxurious Mayan Riviera and left hundreds of local residents homeless yesterday, forcing many to remain in crowded, leaky shelters.