World News from the BBC

In the first address of her historic visit to the Irish Republic, Queen Elizabeth has extended her "deep sympathy" to those who she said had suffered during the troubled past of the two countries. She spoke of the painful legacy of history, but added that Britain and Ireland were now firm friends and equal partners. From Dublin, Peter Hunt reports.

At Dublin Castle, where once previous monarchs came as rulers, this monarch, wearing a dress adorned with hand-sewn embroidered shamrocks, came to reflect. She impressed her audience immediately by opening her speech in Gaelic with the words "President and friends". The Queen said she wanted to extend her "sincere thoughts and deep sympathy" to all those who had suffered as a consequence of the UK and Ireland's shared troubled past. She went on, "With the benefit of historical

hindsight

we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all."

Libya has released four international journalists who had been detained for several weeks. Two Americans, a British man and a Spaniard disappeared while covering the conflict in Libya. The four are said to be in good health. Andrew North reports from Tripoli.

They were all brought to the Tripoli hotel where the foreign media covering the conflict are staying, looking tired and somewhat

bewilder

ed by the scrum of journalists awaiting them. Libyan officials say the four had been freed by a judge after being given a one-year suspended prison sentence for illegally entering the country. There's been no word on the fate of a South African citizen, photographer Anton Hammerl, who's believed to have been detained in Libya in early April.