Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

Ted Cruz and Donald Trump each captured two victories in yesterday's four-state round of voting in the Republican race for the White House.

A teacher who claimed to have been attacked by a masked assailant invoking Islamic State (IS) made up the story, the Paris prosecutor’s office has said.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton have batted away growing claims of a November election, insisting it is just speculation and that whoever is doing it “needs to stop”.

President Barack Obama is vowing to relentlessly hunt down terrorists from “Pakistan to the streets of Paris”.

The IRFU is hoping to cash in on the feelgood factor generated by Ireland’s Six Nations victory by selling their November Guinness Series tickets early.

New Ireland rugby head coach Joe Schmidt has enjoyed getting settled into his new role and is relishing his first set of test games this autumn.

Leinster back rower Rhys Ruddock has been drafted into the Ireland squad ahead of their final November Test series match against Argentina on Saturday (2pm).

Some in the crowd wept softly as Taoiseach Enda Kenny bowed his head in honour of Britain’s military dead at Enniskillen’s war memorial.

US Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney is trying to deflect questions about his record as a businessman who has kept part of his vast fortune in overseas accounts.

A rebel army allied with Ivory Coast’s democratically elected president has taken control of a fourth town in the country’s far West, a military spokesman said.

The IRFU have reacted to the outrage of clubs and supporters, originally asked to link all four November international matches into a single package, by splitting it into two separate packages.

WORLD Champions South Africa will herald a new rugby era at the Aviva Stadium when they face Ireland in the first of the Guinness November internationals.

THE Government’s €10m flood relief fund war chest has been labelled an “empty PR exercise” after it emerged Cork victims have received just €648 each in emergency support, seven months after the disaster.

TOM MULLINS’ Chelsea Harbour should prove hard to beat in the featured Thurles Chase at the Tipperary track this afternoon.

The trial of the only surviving gunman from the Mumbai massacre began today with the prosecutor calling the attacks “a criminal conspiracy hatched in Pakistan to attack India”.

The only man charged in connection with last year’s terror attacks in Mumbai told an Indian court today that he agreed to being provided with a lawyer by the government and also repeated that he is from Pakistan.

LUKE FITZGERALD, eminently likeable guy that he is, tends to give away next to nothing in interviews, so it pays to sit up and take notice when his replies begin to stretch beyond the cursory few sentences.

A hard-line Muslim cleric led a peace march in Pakistan’s Taliban stronghold of the Swat Valley today aimed at persuading them to accept a government peace deal.

Comedian Eddie Izzard treated a fan injured in the Mumbai terror attacks to a stand-up routine as he recovered at a London hospital.

Democratic leaders are urging a quick end to the nomination fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, fearing their protracted campaigns are harming the party.

After days of hammering at Republican rival John McCain, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama struck a conciliatory note and urged unity in service of a greater good in a speech to college graduates.

Barack Obama was poised to reach a major milestone in the Kentucky and Oregon primaries today – a majority of the elected delegates offered in the Democratic presidential contest.

Hillary Clinton’s White House hopes were kept alive for a while longer at least when she defeated Barack Obama by 10 points in Pennsylvania’s crucial primary today.

EOIN GRIFFIN’S Lounaos held off the determined challenge of Al Eile to claim the Leopardstown November Premier Handicap yesterday in the hands of Pat Smullen.

A prosecution witness in a trial in Amman, Jordan, today said an Iraqi woman lied when she said she did not plan to blow herself up in Amman’s triple hotel blasts.

THOMAS CASTAIGNEDE admits it has been hard watching France endure a stuttering start to their RBS 6 Nations campaign as he prepares to make his tournament bow against Italy tomorrow.

OLLY BARKLEY will be England’s centre of attention when the world champions tackle an RBS 6 Nations salvage job against France at Twickenham on Sunday.

ON the eve of a $280 billion racketeering trial of major cigarette makers, political and legal uncertainties are still hanging over the US government’s long-awaited case.

The wife of an alleged ringleader of a Turkish al-Qaida cell believed to have plotted last year’s deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul told a court that her husband was a murderer and she wanted a divorce.

The trial of 69 suspected members of a Turkish al-Qaida cell charged in a string of November suicide bombings in Istanbul opened today, but the court quickly ruled that it did not have the authority to hear the case and that any judgment would have to come before another court.

Dozens of suspected members of a Turkish al-Qaida cell were going on trial in Istanbul today accused over a series of suicide bombings in the city that killed 61 people including the British Consul-General.

A SUICIDE bomber detonated half a ton of explosives outside the US seat of power in Iraq yesterday, killing at least 20 people in the deadliest attack since the capture of Saddam Hussein.

The Israeli army demolished nine houses belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron, making dozens homeless.