WHERE do you get your ideas? — is a question most writers come to dread, and may well be one of the reasons why Frederick Forsyth has finally published his autobiography. 

Safe havens for Christian and other minorities in the Middle East should be a foreign policy priority for the EU and Ireland, writes Rónán Mullen

A planet-wide conflict that claimed as many lives as the first two world wars combined would hardly make any difference to the world’s exploding population, according to a study.

Pope Francis urged the world today to shed its apathy in the face of what he sees as a third world war, intoning “war is madness” at the foot of a Fascist-era monument to soldiers killed in the First World War.

Our guide on what to look out for on the box.

Ireland agreed to ban Soviet airlines from the tarmac at Shannon, just 10 days before nuclear catastrophe was narrowly avoided during the Cold War.

Syria said it had taken “every measure” to retaliate if hit by a feared US-led military strike and would never give in, even if a third world war erupts.

No one can be more qualified than Marco Tardelli to under-stand the pressures on players in a major tournament — and the twists of fate that separate triumph from disaster.

THE latest episode of Cowengate was a bit of a hoot, wasn’t it?

The man most of the world says is Ivory Coast’s new president today called for special forces from West African nations to remove incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

AS we enter the third world war — which is a cyber war — it is disturbing that our own media remain in an insular cocoon.

A suicide bomber struck today near the home of a Pakistani provincial minister whose only son was recently killed by suspected Islamist militants, officials said. Seven people were killed and 25 wounded.

THE horrendous deaths of 10 people – eight in Donegal and two more elsewhere in the country over the past weekend – highlights the enormous social costs of the car in society. It also demonstrates a huge hypocrisy that permeates society when confronting the issues and contradictions that surround car culture in general.

JUST as the international community, almost with a single voice, angrily condemned the murder of nine peace protestors – or Hamas sleepers as Israel would like us to believe – Israel shrugged off the condemnation with indignation and considerable arrogance.

SOUTH AFRICA’S sports minister, Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile, has threatened a “third world war” should the International Association of Athletics Federations ban world champion Caster Semenya.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern yesterday said violence would not resolve the crisis in the Middle East, but again made clear the Government’s reluctance to commit troops to a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON has warned David Beckham to keep quiet about his indiscretions on the pitch as he intimated his cardinal sin was not getting booked on purpose - but admitting to it in public.

RONALD REAGAN'S fierce protector was there to the end.

By Christopher Torchia, Seoul

North Korea today pulled out of a global treaty that bars it from making nuclear weapons, and warned of the chance of a “Third World War”.

The bombing campaign against Afghanistan will drive civilians into the arms of Islamic fundamentalists and could even lead to a third world war, members of the Dáil said today.

The Green Party has condemned last night’s attacks on Afghanistan, saying the offensive will be counter-productive in the fight against international terrorism.