Internationally renowned journalist Seymour Hersh will tonight deliver the Amnesty International lecture in Trinity College, Dublin.

Taiwan’s planned referendum on United Nations membership may damage its crucial ties to the United States, but President Chen Shui-bian is likely to defy American pressure and see the proposal through, analysts say.

We have long enjoyed good relations with the Government and people of the United States. Indeed, much of our Celtic Tiger prosperity is thanks to this relationship with the Americans.

THE Bush Administration has demanded that Google Inc provide details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

The Bush Administration has demanded that Google Inc provide details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

A NEW book on the US government’s secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anaesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein’s nuclear programme.

Reaction to North Korea’s demand for civilian reactors before dismantling its nuclear programme ranged from harsh to calm today, though none of the parties to international talks said they expected the negotiating process to break down.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice articulates Bush Administration aspirations for the promotion of democracy in the lead-up to Egyptian elections, writes Anne Gearan in Cairo.

THE dollar rallied further against the euro yesterday despite poor data from the US in recent days.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned by his intelligence chiefs that the case for war against Iraq was being fixed by the United States to suit their policy, it was claimed yesterday.

SINN FÉIN denied last night that the Bush Administration had banned it from fundraising in America after US Justice Department figures revealed it had raised more than $7 million (€5.26m) since 1995.

Ireland’s response to the Asian tsunami tragedy was “fantastic”, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said today.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern promised to push for the rights of undocumented Irish immigrants tonight as he arrived in the US for a five-day visit.

US President George Bush and election challenger John Kerry were entering a final breathless weekend of campaigning today, ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Vice-presidential hopeful John Edwards has sparked a row by claiming that under a John Kerry administration “people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again”.

President George Bush delivered a combative defence of his policies last night as he went head-to-head in a second live debate with his election challenger John Kerry.

American Vice President Dick Cheney squared up to his election challenger John Edwards today in their one and only live televised debate.

George Bush and John Kerry have locked horns on live television in the first face-to-face debate of the presidential election campaign.

PART of the Patriot Act, a central plank of the Bush Administration’s war on terror, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge yesterday.

The man challenging George Bush for the White House, Senator John Kerry, arrived tonight in Boston where his followers are gathered for the pre-election Democratic National Convention.

Detainees at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay have provided little intelligence and their value has been exaggerated by the Bush Administration, a newspaper investigation claimed today.

Film-maker Michael Moore had evidence that Iraqi prisoners were being abused by US soldiers long before shocking pictures of the scandal emerged, he said today.

A row which threatened the release of controversial film-maker Michael Moore’s latest documentary has been resolved.

A documentary by left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore which links President George Bush to the family of Osama bin Laden is being blocked by Disney, it emerged today.

WHITE House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said that in hindsight if anything might have helped stop 9/11 it would have been better information about threats inside the United States.

Mark Sage, New York

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

The Bush Administration had plans in place to destroy al-Qaida before the September 11 terrorist attacks, United States National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice claimed today.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush failed to act on intelligence and eliminate key al Qaida terrorists by force in the years before the September 11 attacks, according to a probe in the US.

Vietnam war hero John Kerry today emerged as the man who will challenge George W Bush for the White House at the presidential election.

Voting began today in the New Hampshire Primary, with the stakes high for the Democratic candidates hoping to run for the White House later this year.

The Bush Administration is to appeal for greater United Nations involvement in the process of handing sovereignty back to the Iraqi people, US officials said today.

The Bush Administration told senior politicians before the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein had developed drones which could strike the east coast of the US with weapons of mass destruction, a Senator has claimed.

The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) welcomed the scrapping of the US Steel Import tax by the Bush Administration yesterday, but called for immediate action on the foreign sales corporation dispute.

The man given the task of finding Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction delivers his initial findings tomorrow and is expected to say that Iraq’s threat to launch chemical or biological attacks may have been a bluff.

The mystery surrounding apparent security breaches at Guantanamo Bay, America’s prison for suspected terrorists deepened tonight as it emerged that a member of the US Air Force had been arrested.

North Korea appears ready to accept President George Bush’s proposal for six-party talks to resolve growing concerns about Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons, the State Department said today.

In another stinging rebuke to US trade laws, the World Trade Organisation ruled that American tariffs on steel imports violate global rules.

North Korea has threatened the US that it plans to export nuclear weapons and test an atomic bomb, it was reported today.

The CIA has abandoned efforts to persuade Iraqi generals and political leaders to defect after underestimating their “hatred” of America, officials said today.

SPECIAL operations units in the US military have contacted Iraq’s notorious secret police to attempt to acquire documents which might show Baghdad’s links with al-Qaida.

Special operations units in the US military have contacted Iraq’s notorious secret police to attempt to acquire documents showing Baghdad’s links with al-Qaida, it was reported today.

US lawmakers have drafted a resolution thanking Tony Blair for backing America in the war against Iraq.

Hollywood heart throb George Clooney breaks with tradition when he appears as the latest guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs tomorrow.