The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of internet videos.

Brian Cowen missed a trick during his TG4 interview, which is to be shown next Thursday, but has been well-flagged in advance.

Spain’s borrowing costs have broken through the level where its debt is seen as unsustainable, despite the victory by pro-bailout parties in the Greek elections.

Thousands of protesters took to Moscow’s streets, accusing prime minister Vladimir Putin’s party of rigging Russia’s parliamentary election in which it won the largest share of the seats.

BERTIE AHERN’S coalition governments ignored the Department of Finance’s pleas for restraint in order to fulfil election promises and deliver politically popular policies, a damning report has suggested.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition has won Sri Lanka’s first post-war parliamentary elections, further consolidating his political dominance after the battlefield defeat of the Tamil Tigers last year.

The future of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing Executive will come under renewed scrutiny today after Sinn Féin tabled an urgent Assembly question about the Robinson controversy.

Seventy university professors were detained after meeting with Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, according to a website affiliated with the politician.

A group of Cork businesswomen had a chance to get up close and personal with one of the European Union’s most senior politicians recently when they met Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission, for coffee and a chat during the Commissioner’s visit to the city.

THE Senate will today vote on a proposal to sit at the University of Limerick to discuss a motion to open up voting rights to the upper house of the Oireachtas to all third-level graduates.

FOLLOWING the disputed elections in Kenya, in which approximately 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes and livelihoods, there is still no functioning Kenyan government.

Pakistan’s military ruler faced new challenges today in the wake of the country’s suspension from the Commonwealth.

The United States’ top court said tonight it will decide whether the city of Washington can ban handguns, a case that could produce the most in-depth examination of the constitutional right to bear arms in nearly 70 years.

Throngs of supporters greeted Benazir Bhutto as she landed in Sukkur, Pakistan, today on the way to her ancestral home.

Alarmed tourists jammed Caribbean airports for flights out of Hurricane Dean’s path as the storm threatened to engulf Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Ireland is the laughing stock of Europe because voters still use pencils in elections, an "embarrassed" Taoiseach told the Dáil today.

Gunmen attacked the convoy of the Palestinian foreign minister and raided a training base for an elite unit of the security forces today, stepping up factional violence over a decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end nine months of Hamas rule and call early elections.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh today agreed that their moderate Fatah and militant Hamas parties would form a coalition government – a move the Palestinians hope would ease crippling international sanctions.

A senior UN official today acknowledged that the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s presidential and parliamentary elections this weekend would be problematic.

Israeli forces entered deep into the Gaza Strip early today for the first time since Israel’s summer withdrawal from the coastal area.

SOCIALIST candidate Evo Morales, who has promised to halt a US-backed campaign to end coca growing, appeared to have to won Bolivia’s presidential elections, a victory that would solidify the continent’s shift toward the political left.

Sunni Arab participation in the Iraqi elections could have been even higher if there had there been more polling centres in key Sunni areas, a head of the largest Sunni Arab slate said today.

The American military today detained a high-ranking member of al Qaida in Iraq in the restive town of Ramadi, the US Marines said.

Pakistan’s interior minister today expressed concern over attacks against Muslims in Britain in the wake of last week’s bombings in London.

Iran’s presidential elections seemed almost certain to require a second round as the favourite contender, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, appeared unlikely today to garner the 50% of votes required to avoid a run-off round.

ON the eve of Iran’s presidential election, US President George W Bush has said the voting has been designed to keep power in the hands of a few rulers “through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy”.

A delegation from the SDLP is in Dublin for talks with the Taoiseach.

Harry McGee and Senan Hogan

Shiite Muslims, many kneeling in prayer, were attacked in their mosques and on the streets on the eve of their holiest day, with five bombings killing 36 people in the deadliest day in Iraq since the January 30 national elections.

Kidnappers threatening to kill a Northern Irish woman in Afghanistan were today awaiting a response to their demand for a prisoner exchange.

The US elections are front page news in almost every newspaper in the Middle East.

PROJECT announcements by ministers have a habit of being repeated, but the confirmation that the Cork School of Music will proceed takes the biscuit in terms of déja vu moments.

President Vladimir Putin has accused Chechen separatists of staging the rush-hour bombing that blew apart a Moscow underground carriage.

THE UN war crimes tribunal yesterday slapped a 30 day gag order on Slobodan Milosevic who is running in Serbian elections later this month, citing rules that forbid detainees from communicating with the media.

THE dollar erased some of its losses against the European single currency yesterday, at $1.22 to the euro, after falling as low as $1.2276 earlier, for a new record.

Sinn Féin will occupy either the First or Deputy First Minister’s post in the next power-sharing government at Stormont, Martin McGuinness claimed tonight.

Northern Ireland’s politicians were today embarking on another intense week of campaigning in the run up to this month’s Assembly elections.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has warned that the Irish peace process could drift into oblivion if the British government does not call elections in the North as a matter of urgency.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair must tell Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble today that he is pushing ahead with Assembly elections in Northern Ireland next month, a former Sinn Fein minister insisted today.

The British Government was under pressure today to make a definitive statement on whether Assembly elections would go ahead in Northern Ireland as planned.

THE British Government is sticking with its plans for Assembly elections in Northern Ireland next month, even if efforts to restore devolution fail, a spokesman said last night.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has accused Israel of trying to prevent Palestinian elections next year which he is expected to win.

A man whose son was gunned down by the IRA in retaliation for the killing of eight of its members in Loughgall is standing in the local government elections, it emerged today.