Youth and death – two words when paired together call to mind the most unimaginable heartache. It was with profound sadness that on June 16 we learned of the terrible news that occurred overnight in Berkeley, California - the death of six young students and the injuries to seven others.

The last of the funeral services have now taken place in Ireland and most of the injured students have returned home to continue medical treatment there. For several, the road to recovery will be long and hard. All of those directly involved will never forget the details of the tragedy.

The ceaseless turmoil in the Mideast is wreaking havoc, human and governmental, across the Mediterranean Sea as migrants, most of them in overcrowded boats, are streaming away from North Africa in search of asylum in European countries.

A number of countries have heeded a call from the European Union to patrol the waters where the migrant craft are crossing. As of late June, officials estimate that some 60,000 refugees have put to sea this year, with some 2,000 dying en route, according to the United Nations, as countries like Italy and France, facing domestic unrest over migration, keep trying to figure out what to do with the unexpected inflow.

The Irish Navy has been a key player in the ongoing patrol-and-rescue operation. The accompanying photos, provided to the Associated Press by Irish Defence Forces, show Irish sailors in action on June 6, offloading migrants and tending to a baby in arms aboard the Irish Navy’s Le Eithne.

For more on Le Eithne’s mission, see Ed Forry’s Publisher’s Notebook.

Sen. Thomas Kennedy, a Brockton Democrat and fixture at the Massachusetts State House for more than three decades, passed away on Sun., June 28, according to his family. He was 63 and, an acquaintance of the family said, had been undergoing treatment for cancer and died of complications related to the disease.