Reclusive North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with its southern neighbour because war could break out at “any moment“, it said, days after warning the US and South Korea of a nuclear attack.

The President of Sinn Féin Gerry Adams has said he may have more to apologise for as part of the healing process for the Northern Ireland conflict.

The Irish Government should trawl its documents archive to support the family of a solicitor murdered by Northern Ireland loyalists with state support, it was claimed.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic claimed he was a peace-lover as he addressed his trial for crimes against humanity today.

Afghanistan's president has raised another condition for a long-awaited strategic partnership with the United States.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he has “no doubt” that fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony will be arrested this year because the international spotlight has helped boost the hunt for the Lord’s Resistance Army leader.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor has asked judges to issue an arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and two other senior members of his regime for crimes against humanity, accusing them of deliberately targeting civilians in their crackdown against rebels.

THE three co-authors of a scathing United Nations report on Israel’s conduct during its 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza have said they stand by their work.

SERBIA took a crucial step forward in its bid to join the European Union yesterday, when EU foreign ministers agreed to examine Belgrade’s candidacy, in reward for softening its stance on Kosovo.

THE top US military commander in Afghanistan yesterday blasted as “reprehensible” the release of Afghan war documents, saying that US partners named in them have been put at risk.

Online whistleblower WikiLeaks vowed to continue publishing more secret files from governments around the world despite US demands to cancel plans to release classified military documents.

THE International Criminal Court said yesterday it has launched a preliminary investigation into last month’s violence at a Guinea sports stadium, where presidential guard troops opened fire on tens of thousands of demonstrators.

POPE Benedict XVI called for a two-state solution to end Middle East wars and “terrorism” and slammed the Holocaust as “brutal extermination” as he concluded his Holy Land trip.

SYRIA’S most senior Muslim cleric has told Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin Syria will not help cultural integration in Ireland with a school system segregated on the basis of religion.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Micheál Martin will sit down with the president of Syria today during the first stage of a diplomatic tour of the Middle East.

FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny has warned Taoiseach Brian Cowen he will stand defiantly against the solutions currently proposed to deal with the financial crisis.

US SECRETARY of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in France yesterday for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy, broker of a ceasefire accord on the Russia-Georgia conflict, before heading to crisis talks in Tbilisi.

A civil legal action against those accused of plotting a bomb attack which killed 29 people will start today.

Iraq’s foreign minister today warned that a quick American military withdrawal from the country could lead to civil war and the collapse of the government, as pressure on the Bush administration for a pull-out grows.

Spaniards voted today in local and regional elections following an acrimonious campaign centring on major issues such as terrorism and the Basque conflict.

Rival Palestinian delegations met in the dark hours of the morning as they prepared for crucial talks in the Saudi holy city Macca today on ending their bloody street battles and resuming the peace process with Israel.

Recommendations empowering victims and survivors of the Northern conflict are to be published this week.

Former US president Jimmy Carter has written to American Jews explaining his use of the term “apartheid” and sympathising with Israelis who fear terrorism, following controversy over his new book on the Middle East conflict.

Former UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson has accused America of prolonging the latest Middle East conflict.

Two dozen people have died in a surge of violence in northern Iraq, including 10 at a football game hit by a suicide car bombing, police said, while the country’s spiralling sectarian and political bloodshed killed at least 19 others elsewhere.

The current Iraqi conflict is the theme for American Soldiers: A Day in Iraq (Momentum, 24.99), a drama centred on one day when an American patrol is attacked by a band of guerrillas.

EAMON de Valera, founder of Fianna Fáil, attached enormous importance to symbolism. It could be argued that his attachment to symbols was the major contributory factor to the civil war.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has designated the Continuity IRA as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Israeli workers started removing a section of the West Bank separation barrier today, a day before the world court begins a hearing on the legality of the structure.

AT least 54 people were killed this week in renewed tribal fighting in northeast Congo, close to the town of Bunia, where an international force has been deployed to keep the peace.

Three Bosnian Serbs charged with genocide, were today accused of massacring thousands of Muslims “like animals” in the UN safe area of Srebrenica during the Bosnia war.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has spoken by phone with US Secretary of State Colin Powell to ask the US to intervene in the Middle East conflict.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s troubled visit to the Middle East made a ‘‘very very significant’’ contribution to reviving the stalled peace process, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted today.

Israel's use of American-made warplanes in the Middle East conflict has brought new charges from Palestinians that the US Government is leaning heavily in Israel's favour.

The US stepped back into the Middle East conflict tonight and said it would help broker a peace deal if the violence stopped unconditionally.