Dublin - Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin on Wednesday described visiting Czech President Vaclav Klaus' meeting with the leader of the Eurosceptic group that campaigned successfully against the Lisbon Treaty in June as "an inappropriate intervention."

Speaking on Irish state RTE Radio, Martin said that while Klaus had the right to include private elements to his state visit, his appearance before reporters with Declan Ganley of the Libertas group Tuesday evening meant that a private dinner "turned out to be much more political."

Dublin  - Ciaran Cuffe of Ireland's Green Party has denounced visiting Czech President Vaclav Klaus as ultra-conservative and anti- European and has asked the Irish government to express some concern over his views, national broadcaster RTE reported Tuesday.

The Czech Republic, which assumes the rotating EU presidency on January 1, will have to deal with Ireland's rejection in a June referendum of the Lisbon Treaty aimed at streamlining the decision- making process in the 27-member bloc.

Cork, Ireland  - The departure of the Queen Elizabeth 2 from Southampton on November 11 marks the end of an era which will see the last of the great ocean liners sail through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal en route to her final resting place in Dubai.

From November 27, Cunard's longest-serving liner and flagship will become a floating "hotel, retail and entertainment destination" at the Palm Jumeirah, the enormous palm-shaped artificial island currently being developed as a complex of tourist hotels and apartments, also by Dubai World from 2009.

Dublin  - As Ireland's Progressive Democrats (PDS) ground to a halt at the weekend, it seemed fitting, given the collapse of the low-taxation Celtic Tiger economy, that the party which peddled liberal free-market economic policies was "no longer politically viable."

One of the junior parties in the Irish coalition government, the PDs, which have just two seats in the lower house or Dail, voted to wind up the party by 201 votes to 161.

Dublin - Czech President Vaclav Klaus was due to meet Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen on an official state visit to Ireland Monday.

Klaus and Cowen would discuss the Czech Republic's upcoming presidency of the European Union, the global financial crisis and the Lisbon Treaty, a statement from Cowen's office in Dublin said.

The Czech Republic assumes the EU presidency on January 1. Prague has been a vocal opponent of the Lisbon Treaty aimed at streamlining the 27-member bloc's decision-making process, which Ireland rejected in a popular vote in June.

Klaus was due to meet Irish President Mary McAleese Monday morning and visit tourist sites in Dublin and the south-western city of Cork on Tuesday and Wednesday.

London - Ceremonies took place across Britain and Ireland on Sunday to remember the servicemen and women who lost their lives in armed conflict.

Queen Elizabeth II led Remembrance Sunday events by laying a traditional poppy wreath at the Cenotaph in London's Whitehall.

Remembrance services, which take place on the Sunday closest to November 11, the date of the end of World War I, this year fall two days before the 90th anniversary of the end of that conflict.

Military performances are due to take place in London's Trafalgar Square to commemorate the anniversary.

The war dead were also commemorated in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast, as well as in other cities and towns across Britain and Ireland.