FBI director James Comey has given a stark warning against smartphone data encryption.

Ireland’s overseas aid programme has come out top in an international comparison of how richer countries help poorer nations.

The global economy is strengthening but faces threats from super-low inflation and outflows of capital from emerging economies, the International Monetary Fund warned.

Angry slogans were spray-painted last month on walls, garages and a car in Silicon Valley. Now a widening income gap is sparking debate, frustration and even sporadic protests, writes Martha Mendoza

We don’t yet know what Putin’s real agenda is generally with Ukraine and specifically with Crimea. But it echoes the murky events that eventually led to the first global war, writes James G Neuger

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai told a court his wife stole government funds without his involvement and revealed how the couple became estranged after he had been unfaithful, offering a glimpse in his politically charged trial of the unraveling of one of China’s elite families.

AROUND the world, persistent unemployment, skill mismatches, and retirement frameworks have become central to fiscal policy — and to the often fierce political debates that surround it.

Cuba’s admission that it was secretly sending ageing weapons systems to North Korea turned the global spotlight on a little-known link in a secretive network of rusting freighters and charter jets that moves weapons to and from North Korea, defying United Nations sanctions.

SINCE his first day in office, US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy has rested on outreach: Resetting ties with Russia, building a partnership with China, and offering a fresh start with antagonistic leaders from Iran to Venezuela.

Two men have been arrested and charged with plotting a terrorist attack against a Canadian passenger train with support from al Qaida elements in Iran.

The average cost of a four-year college degree in the US is $102,000. Such an investment writes James Pressley in his review of Enrico Moretti’s The New Geography of Jobs, might just be worth it to help the country’s cities prosper

The wife of a fallen Chinese politician was given a suspended death sentence today after confessing to killing British businessman Neil Heywood in a case that rocked the country’s political leadership.

Chinese leaders may spare a politician’s wife the death penalty for killing British businessman Neil Heywood, fearing it might incite public sympathy, analysts said today.

Forty years ago, a failed burglary in Washington culminated in a giant political scandal that led to the fall of Richard Nixon.

Are your taxes too high? When Gallup asked that question in April, tax month in the US, 46% said they were.

Britain moved to whip up international support for a new military and political strategy in Somalia to intensify pressure on al-Shabab militants and try to pull the failed Horn of Africa nation back from the grip of pirates and terrorists.

Ireland’s financial fall from grace has seen the capital named as one of the three worst performing metropolitan economies in the world.

THE IMF’s $384 billion (€283.5bn) lending chest may not be enough to meet all loan requests if the global economy worsens,managing director Christine Lagarde said.

BARACK OBAMA’S foes will rejoice if his Democrats get thumped in mid-term congressional elections, but even if his presidency needs a rethink, it may be premature to prepare his political obituary for 2012.

YEMEN’S al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula has published chilling tips on how to kill Americans in its second edition of the English online magazine Inspire.

An airport shuttle driver accused of plotting a 7/7-style bombing in New York had contacts with al-Qaida that went as high as an Osama bin Laden confidant believed to be the terror group's leader in Afghanistan, US intelligence officials said.

Patricia Zengerle reports from Washington on the President’s one-week break away from two wars, global recession and domestic politics.

Bombing runs called in by US forces killed dozens of civilians taking shelter from fighting between Taliban militants and Afghan and international troops, Afghan officials said.

Matt Williams finds the president’s reputation abroad has been enhanced from an already lofty level.

AS yardsticks go, a hundred days may not be the best way to judge the success or failure of an administration.

The appointment of George Mitchell as Middle East envoy is an indication that Barack Obama is turning to experience and proven ability to push forward the stalled peace process.

US vice president Dick Cheney’s office pushed to delete references about the consequences of climate change on public health from congressional testimony, in a bid to play down the effects of global warming, a former environment expert claims.

BENAZIR BHUTTO was the target of threats from virtually all of the militant groups who make Pakistan their home — from al-Qaida to homegrown terrorists to tribal insurgents on the Afghan border.

Britain’s weekend handover of Basra province will have a limited effect on security in Iraq’s biggest oil region because rival Shiite warlords and local officials have been wielding the real power in the area.

President Hu Jintao won a second five-year term as China’s Communist Party chief today, heading a new leadership line-up that features potential successors, yet could invite a divisive battle to succeed him.

As Iran’s judiciary acknowledged that the country’s intelligence is investigating an American-Iranian academic for security crimes, US Secretary of State blasted the detention and called on Tehran today to immediately release Haleh Esfandiari.

THE White House offered support yesterday for Vice President Dick Cheney, a powerful proponent of the Iraq war, after the conviction of his top aide dealt a fresh blow to Cheney’s political reputation and raised new questions about his influence.

BRITAIN will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the “coming months”, aiming to cut its force to below 5,000 by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the southern part of the country, Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday.

The population of the United States officially hit 300 million at 7.46am EDT (12.46pm Irish Time) today, when the Census Bureau’s population clock rolled over to the big number.

A senior United Nations official today said the Sudanese government had been able to reject the proposed deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur because the US and Britain had not done enough to sell the idea to countries around the world.

A controversial new study contends that nearly 655,000 have died because of the Iraq conflict, suggesting a far higher death toll than other estimates.

A series of attacks in eastern Baghdad this evening killed at least 39 people and wounded 115 within half an hour, police said.

The G-8 summit that US President George Bush and seven other world leaders are attending next weekend in Russia is often billed as a gathering of the world’s leading economic powers.

Trying to build support for Iraq war strategy, President George Bush acknowledged today that reconstruction has proceeded with “fits and starts” but spreading economic progress is lifting people’s hopes for a democratic future.

EVEN with Deep Throat out of the shadows, mystery remains about the Watergate break-in more than 30 years after Richard Nixon resigned as president.

In another attack targeting Iraqi security forces, a suicide car bomb destroyed a police minibus at a checkpoint in Saddam Hussein’s hometown today, killing at least eight policemen, officials said.

Iraq was hit by a new wave of attacks targeting security forces today, killing at least 20 people in Baghdad.

Attackers ambushed and killed two American contractors working for Blackwater Security Consulting south of the Iraqi capital, the US Embassy and security officials said today.