Aerospace giant Rolls-Royce posted a 49% hike in profits today as it showed why its shares were among the best performing in the London stock market last year.

A host of musicians and stars, including Chris Rock, came together to help the thousands of refugees displaced by Hurricae Katrina.

WITH Ireland’s pension time bomb ticking loudly, there is urgent need for Government to introduce mandatory cover for tens of thousands of people who are staring at abject poverty in their twilight years.

Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone is to make a film based on the true story of two police officers trapped in the rubble after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York.

Satellite operator Inmarsat today began the countdown to one of the UK’s biggest stock market listings of the year.

Upmarket British estate agency Chesterton has gone into receivership with 300 job losses due to the property market slowdown, it emerged today.

US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice will be nominated to succeed outgoing secretary of state Colin Powell, it emerged today.

Virgin will base a new budget airline for the United States in San Francisco with its corporate headquarters in New York, it has been announced.

The United States is “crossing the rubicon into space weaponisation” with a little-known missile programme, a senior government official said today.

The United States is to release 24 prisoners from the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the coming weeks, an American envoy has said.

Airport operating company Aer Rianta has welcomed yesterday's news that an American airline is to begin two new services to Ireland next year.

The British plane spotters, jailed in Greece for espionage, took down details of Greek air force combat formations, their appeal heard today.

A businessman triggered a major alert at a sorting office with a “joke” salt-filled letter sent to a friend in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America and the world-wide anthrax scare, a court heard today.

Nearly 250 more jobs are to go at Belfast aerospace company Shorts, trade unions said today.

The American government will stage one of its biggest parties on foreign soil tomorrow night to signal its gratitude for Irish support after September 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York.

Investors were today anxiously watching the FTSE 100 index after they were warned to expect another stressful week following last Friday’s £34bn (€53bn) slump in the value of London’s leading shares.

Tourism and business representatives tonight warned that the Aer Lingus dispute could have a catastrophic effect on the economy if allowed to continue.

Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is alive and recruiting fresh support in Britain and Europe, according to an expert on al Qaida.

Torrential rain washed out Britney Spears' first open-air show in Australia.

Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth has a two-shot lead going into tomorrow’s final round of the Carlsberg Malaysian Open.

Rudolph Giuliani says he drew the strength to lead New Yorkers after the September 11 terrorist attacks from Winston Churchill.

Low air fare sector specialists Ryanair today detailed plans for a shares sale aimed at raising cash for new aircraft, just three days after unveiling record profits and passenger numbers.

Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan will travel to Boston today on the final leg of his week-long tour of the US.

Sweden’s Carl Pettersson carded a brilliant opening 64 to take the early lead in the first round of the Bell’s South African Open in Durban today.

An Arab-American secret service agent assigned to US President George W Bush’s security team was removed from an American Airlines flight after the pilot questioned his credentials.

Two of Japan's biggest aircraft makers are in talks with Boeing over a deal to assemble passenger jet bodies in Japan.

Banditry on Afghanistan roads is making it too dangerous to deliver help to many remote areas where millions of hungry Afghans are effectively cut off, the UN World Food Programme has said.

The economy today received one of its gloomiest short-term assessments in nearly a decade.

Facing a power vacuum in Afghanistan with the Taliban on the run, the United Nations urged Afghan groups to meet ‘‘as early as humanly possible’’ about forming a transitional government backed by an international force.

The death toll from the New York jet crash today rose to at least 265 as investigators began studying the wreckage of the plane.

Security chiefs at Sellafield say safety at the Cumbria plant has been reviewed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov met in Moscow today to discuss US-Russian co-operation in the anti-terrorist campaign.

Renewed anxiety about the possibility of more terror attacks pressured Wall Street today, resulting in a mixed finish for the market despite some better-than-expected results from Boeing.

A Muslim extremist rebel leader has threatened to behead an American couple before the Philippine president’s visit to the United States next month, if the army does not halt its offensive on the group.

North Korea abruptly postponed a reunion of 200 separated family members in the two Korean states today, citing a ‘‘warlike situation’’ in South Korea.

Wall Street showed it can tolerate bad earnings news today, rallying sharply despite losses and job cuts at Motorola.

Virgin Group chief Richard Branson will meet Singapore Airlines leader Cheong Choong Kong in Singapore later this week.

A chartered Russian airliner heading from Israel to Siberia exploded at 36,000 feet today and plummeted into the Black Sea coast with 78 people on board.

Swissair has suspended its flight operations as it struggles to find a financial backer.

Wall Street took a respite today after two weeks of volatile trading, dipping lower as investors awaited a Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates.

Frustrated Polish voters handed power to a reformed party of ex-communists in parliamentary elections and sent the once-mighty Solidarity bloc into political oblivion, exit polls showed.

Hardline Muslims are pushing for a nationwide strike to show their opposition to Pakistan's decision to co-operate with the United States.