French crack baby-smuggling ring

French police have found at least five babies apparently sold by a Bulgarian smuggling ring, and arrested the French couples alleged to have bought them.
The infants, all aged around 18 months, were discovered in traveller camps in Paris and some other parts of France.
They were allegedly bought by French couples for up to 6,000 euros (£4,000).
The couples face charges of kidnapping, incitement to child abandonment, falsification of birth certificates and human smuggling.
French police sources say the investigation began when a mother in Bulgaria alerted the police there, possibly after taking part in the scheme and then being overcome with remorse.
The joint inquiry with Bulgarian authorities lasted more than a year.
French authorities said they found a network run by a Bulgarian family that would find pregnant young women from poor families in Bulgaria and offer them between 400 and 1,000 euros to give birth in France and then hand over their baby to a French couple.
The women were also sometimes forced into prostitution in France.
A French children's court judge must now decide whether the babies should be returned to their adoptive parents or placed in foster care.

Four charged over Coleraine armed robbery bid

Three youths and a man were charged by police in Northern Ireland today in relation to an attempted armed robbery at a food premises.

The youths, aged 15, 16 and 17, and the 22-year-old man will appear at Coleraine Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning.

Their arrests were related to an alleged incident at a hot food bar in the Laurel Hill Road area of Coleraine on Thursday.

Five held as heroin worth €3m seized in Dublin

Five people are being questioned by gardaí today following the seizure of heroin valued at over €3 million was seized in Dublin last night.

Gardaí from the National Bureau of Crime Investigation stopped two vehicles in the Ballyfermot and Clondalkin areas of west Dublin at 7.30pm as part of an ongoing operation.

Four men, ranging in age from 17 to their late 30s, and an 18-year-old woman were arrested. They are being questioned in Ballyfermot and Clondalkin Garda stations under Section Two of the Drug Trafficking Act.

A Garda spokeswoman said heroin with a potential value of over €3 million was recovered.