Acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny has thrown down the gauntlet to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, calling on him to “act responsibly” in putting a government together.

US politicians have stepped back from the fiscal cliff which many feared could prompt a new economic downturn.

British Prime Minister David Cameron was given a lavish official welcome to Washington DC today as he joined US President Barack Obama ahead of talks which will focus on Afghanistan and Syria.

ISRAEL’S interior minister gave final authorisation to build 1,600 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem and will approve 2,700 more apartments in days, officials said yesterday, detailing a plan that could complicate diplomatic efforts to dissuade Palestinians from declaring statehood at the United Nations.

HUNDREDS of thousands of Somali children could die in the country’s famine unless more help arrives, a top US official said last night as Washington prepared to announce $100 million (€70.34m) in famine aid.

BACK-TO-BACK state visits will take place at the end of May, with US President Barack Obama likely to arrive on the 21st — just a day after the Queen of England departs.

Two people have been killed and seven injured, some critically, after a suicide bomber blew herself up in a Governor's compound in Iraq's western Anbar Province.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has promised continued cooperation with Ireland to encourage private sector investment as an economic stimulus.

BARACK OBAMA last night remembered to invite Taoiseach Brian Cowen to the White House this St Patrick’s Day, hours after the American president unveiled a stunning $1.7 trillion (e1.4tn) budget deficit.

IT WAS an auspicious start to President Barack Obama’s new world order. By his second week in office he’d directed military leaders to end the war in Iraq, ordered the closing of Guantanamo Bay and witnessed Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki’s resounding victory that made it look like a 16-month exit plan is in the offing.