Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, looks at the proposal that everybody in society should be given an unconditional income.

Ecstatic opposition leaders vowed to use their new majority in Venezuela’s legislature to free jailed opponents of the Socialist government, but also said they would not move to dismantle popular welfare policies.

An inquiry into the fatal shooting by gardaí of a Real IRA member during the course of an armed robbery almost 20 years ago is to begin in Dublin this week.

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) categorically rejects Kevin McCarthy’s allegations (Letters, July 10) that the IPSC has recently, or ever, “intimidated academics, musicians and artists”.

US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have announced they have made progress on nuclear cooperation and climate change.

The first edition of Charlie Hebdo published after last week’s deadly attack by Islamist gunmen sold out within minutes at newspaper kiosks around France, with readers queuing up for copies to support the satirical weekly.

The Gulf nation of Qatar has hit back at suggestions that it supports the Islamic State extremist group, saying that “determined, collective action” is needed to end sectarian violence gripping Iraq and Syria.

William Burroughs’ centenary occurs this month. The West Cork-based photographer John Minihan recalls meeting the controversial author in London

The centenary of the famous Dublin lock-out has been marked with a state commemoration at a city site synonymous with Ireland’s largest ever industrial dispute.

In parallel trial sessions, Egyptian courts have heard cases against ousted President Hosni Mubarak and top leaders of his arch rival, the Muslim Brotherhood, related to killings during the 2011 and 2013 protest campaigns that led to their respective downfalls.

The Government has been urged to reopen talks with trade unions after workers rejected the extension of the Croke Park deal agreement.

IF Miko Peled’s life were fiction, it might be mistaken for fantasy: a staunch Zionist, Israeli Special Forces commando and son of a famous army general becomes an Arab-loving peace activist and champion of Palestinian rights.

It is Pope Francis and his papacy that will define history, not his election, writes Frederick Kempe

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the summit of the Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing countries in Tehran next week despite strong opposition from Israel and Jewish groups outraged at Iran’s calls for the destruction of Israel, the UN announced today.

Three Palestinians were killed in fresh Israeli air raids in Gaza yesterday, raising the death toll to 18, as militants fired more rockets into the Jewish state.

SATURDAY

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband joked this week about a childhood spat with his brother David over a football.

US president Barack Obama wants to sharply limit Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the botched naval raid that is straining American and Israeli relations with allies around the world.

Arab doctors will meet in Jordan to probe rumours that former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat was poisoned, nearly five years after he died of what French medics called a massive brain haemorrhage.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown today insisted he would attend the Beijing Olympics, despite a warning by the French that President Nicolas Sarkozy will boycott the Games unless China opens talks with the Dalai Lama.

Palestinian factions meeting in Yemen have ended five days of reconciliation talks without agreeing on who will control the Gaza Strip.

Reconciliation talks between rival Palestinian factions will continue tomorrow, as Hamas' top leaders seek approval for the final draft of a Yemeni-sponsored agreement, Yemen's foreign minister said tonight.

Scotland Yard forensic experts investigating the assassination of Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto are unlikely to discover who killed her, her supporters said today.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today said he’ll see to it that Fatah leaders and security officers responsible for the fall of Gaza to Hamas are punished, in line with findings by an internal investigation.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas lashed out at the Islamic militants of Hamas, accusing them of trying to build an “empire of darkness” in the Gaza Strip and pledging he would not negotiate with the “murderous terrorists”.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in an emergency Cabinet today and outlawed the militia forces of the Islamic Hamas movement, deepening the violent rupture in Palestinian society.

Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh insisted today that his Hamas movement’s 6,000-strong militia be recognised as a branch of the Palestinian security forces.

Mortar rounds and rockets hit Somalia’s capital early today in a series of attacks that killed 12 people including a four-year-old boy.

Members of Sinn Féin have staged a protest outside the Progressive Democrats' National Conference in Wexford today.

Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen in an exchange of fire in the West Bank early today, hospital officials and members of a local militia said.

Osama bin Laden’s deputy has accused moderate Arab leaders of being traitors for co-operating with the US and its allies in an audiotaped greeting marking the most important Islamic holiday.

Young schoolchildren screamed in horror today as Palestinian gunmen killed the nine-year-old son of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer in a drive-by shooting on a busy street, an unprecedented attack at a time of heightened tension between rival militias.

Israel will keep targeting Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza despite the risk of inadvertently hitting civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

Lech Walesa, founder of Poland’s Solidarity movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has undergone heart surgery in a Milan hospital, the Polish embassy to Italy said today.

Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, queen of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori population, died today. She was 75.

Pope Benedict XVI today celebrated Mass for an estimated 270,000 people in a rain-soaked Warsaw square where his predecessor, John Paul II, inspired Poland’s Solidarity movement against communist rule in a historic 1979 visit.

Pope Benedict XVI today celebrated Mass for an estimated 270,000 people in a rain-drenched Warsaw square where his predecessor, John Paul II, inspired Poland’s Solidarity movement against communist rule in a historic 1979 visit.

Hamas withdrew a controversial private militia from the streets of the Gaza Strip today, saying it wanted to avoid further infighting with the rival Fatah movement.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas today called for Israel to return to the negotiating table during a speech marking the anniversary of what the Palestinians consider to be the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation.

THAILAND’S embattled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday said he would step down from office, bowing to a mounting opposition campaign seeking his ousting over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

The dominant Fatah movement called off primary elections in two West Bank towns today due to disagreements over voter eligibility, party officials said.