The Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a special meeting to discuss the American President Barack Obama’s plan to overhaul the US immigration system.

The Foreign Affairs Committee will meet with newly appointed Ambassador of Nigeria to Ireland today to look at the development of trade links between Ireland and Nigeria.

America’s security chiefs have met to review the threat of a terrorist attack that led to the weekend closure of 21 US embassies and consulates in the Muslim world and a global travel warning.

Efforts are being made to bring the president of the US Ireland Alliance Trina Vargo before an Oireachtas Committee after she accused Enda Kenny of embarrassing the country by presenting “shamrockery” gifts to US president Barack Obama.

The Foreign Affairs Committee is calling on Ireland and its EU partners to continue working with the League of Arab states to protect the lives of the civilian population in Syria.

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected the Palestinian pursuit of statehood through the United Nations and backed a negotiated settlement as the way to peace with Israel.

The discovery of Osama bin Laden’s hideaway in a city at the heart of Pakistan’s military establishment today revived questions about alleged links between al-Qaida and elements in the country’s security forces.

The Oireachtas Foreign Affairs committee has described as "disappointing" the decision by the Israeli Ambassador to pull out of an emergency meeting on the Gaza flotilla attack later today.

Turkey angrily withdrew its US ambassador after a government committee backed a resolution branding the First World War-era killing of Armenians genocide.

Israel’s Ambassador to Ireland is to be invited to a parliamentary committee to answer questions on the use of fake Irish passports by a team of assassins, it emerged tonight.

SURVIVORS of clerical sex abuse have said the emergency summit between the Pope and Irish bishops in Rome was a complete failure.

Conflict-ravaged Gaza is still being starved of food and medicines but its children offer fresh hope for the future, an Irish UN official said today.

The Israeli and Palestinian envoys in Ireland will come face-to-face at an emergency Oireachtas Committee meeting next week over the ongoing attacks in the Gaza Strip.

The Foreign Affairs Committee in the US House of Representatives is demanding that Iran release 15 British service personnel captured last week in contested Persian Gulf waters.

BACKBENCH TDs and senators spent €500,000 last year on foreign travel, including a number of fact-finding trips to exotic long-haul destinations.

Denmark will turn down a UN request to accept former Liberian President Charles Taylor after his trial in a UN-backed war crimes court, Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said today.

THE image of our Defence Minister Willie O’Dea levelling his big guns against the CIA defies credulity.

CIA AIRCRAFT using Irish landing facilities may be subjected to search inspections to make sure they are not involved in torture operations, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea revealed last night.

The UN was not monitoring several arms embargoes against conflict zones when Ireland joined the Security Council in 2001, it was claimed today.

Former Government minister Jim McDaid apologised tonight for driving under the influence of alcohol after he was stopped by gardaí.

An influential European Parliament committee recommended on today that the EU open membership talks with Turkey, but only if the country follows through on democratic reforms.

Political Editor Harry McGee wonders how much of the €1.25 million spent by TDs and senators on foreign travel in the two years to August 2004 was a necessary expense.

NON-GOVERNMENT foreign travel by TDs and senators has cost the taxpayer at least €1.25 million since June 2002, figures compiled by the Oireachtas have revealed.

THE Irish Secret Service should be monitored by a Dáil committee, Fine Gael said yesterday.

THE Vice President of Colombia yesterday launched a vigorous defence of his country, where three Irishmen are still being held in prison awaiting a verdict eight months after their trial finished.

THE Government will come under pressure today to disclose the intelligence it relied upon in assessing whether the Iraqi regime possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

British Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed today that there will be an inquiry into intelligence gathering on pre-war Iraq.

BBC chairman Gavyn Davies returned to the witness box at the Hutton Inquiry today for the start of the last full day of evidence.

Tony Blair was under continued pressure over the death of David Kelly today as his former ministers lined up to criticise his role in the affair.

A Tory MP today demanded to know why Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had not appeared before the Hutton Inquiry.

David Kelly was “taken aback” by the way BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan grilled him for information, the Hutton Inquiry was told today.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair and Geoff Hoon were facing serious questions yesterday after Britain's leading suicide expert concluded that weapons expert David Kelly took his own life because he felt he had been "publicly disgraced."

BRITISH Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was under increased pressure last night after the widow of David Kelly told how the Iraq weapons expert felt “totally let down and betrayed” by the Ministry of Defence for allowing his name to be made public.

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was put under increased pressure today when the widow of David Kelly told how the Iraq weapons expert felt “totally let down and betrayed” by the British Ministry of Defence for allowing his name to be made public.

REPORTER Andrew Gilligan may have increased the pressures on David Kelly by briefing MPs on how to question the weapons specialist at a committee hearing days before his death, the chairman of the BBC governors acknowledged yesterday.

BRITISH Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon launched a bid to save his political career yesterday, shifting blame for the Dr David Kelly row away from himself and the Government.

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was preparing to fight for his political life today, at the inquiry into David Kelly’s death.

The chairman of the Commons committee which interrogated British government weapons expert Dr David Kelly just two days before his apparent suicide was today giving evidence to the inquiry into his death.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair summoned crisis talks to discuss how the Government should handle the news that David Kelly may have leaked information to the media, the inquiry into the scientist's death heard today.

Details of a letter written by Dr David Kelly just three weeks before his death were revealed for the first time today as the inquiry into his suicide was opened.

The first formal steps in Lord Hutton’s inquiry into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly were being taken at Britain's Royal Courts of Justice today.

Lord Hutton’s inquiry into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly will begin this Friday, August 1, the British government announced today.

THE BBC’s credibility was questioned last night after Dr David Kelly was confirmed as the prime source for reports that intelligence on Iraq was “sexed up”.

The BBC’s credibility was questioned tonight after Dr David Kelly was confirmed as the prime source for reports that intelligence on Iraq was “sexed up”.