President Barack Obama plans to go on the offensive against companies that use cross-borders mergers to escape US taxes, accusing them of essentially renouncing their citizenship to shield profits.

US employers boosted payrolls in April by the most in two years and the jobless rate plunged to 6.3% as companies grew confident the American economy is emerging from a first-quarter slowdown.

Fewer than half the public believe religion is a good thing for the country, with younger people in particular failing to be impressed.

Dancing with him in the living room, watching TV together and sipping a cuppa that he made all contribute to a happy marriage.

The Irish are greater believers in the merits of austerity than almost any other nationality in the EU, where the majority say increasing taxes and cutting spending is not working.

Doctors treating US secretary of state Hillary Clinton for a blood clot said today they were confident she would make a full recovery, after locating the damage.

Democrats kicked off their 2012 convention with first lady Michelle Obama firing the first shots of a three-day salvo aimed at breaking the electoral deadlock with Republicans.

THE dramatic advance of Libyan rebels over the forces of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi offers vindication, at least for now, for President Barack Obama’s decision to refrain from using US troops on Libyan soil and to let Nato take the lead in degrading Gaddafi’s military power.

THE results of a survey published today suggest that you are as likely to find an optimistic Irish person as you are to find a contrite banker.

US President Barack Obama said the killing of Osama bin Laden marked a “good day for America”. Polls show it was good day for him, too.

A SURVEY of “global wellbeing” has found that despite our financial woes, Ireland has the 10th highest percentage of people who are “thriving” based on how they rate their lives and where they see themselves in five years.

Irish people rate themselves among the most fulfilled and optimistic in the world, according to a new global survey.

WITH tempers flaring, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans clashed in an extraordinary live-on-TV summit yesterday over the right prescription for the nation’s broken healthcare system, talking of agreement but holding to long-entrenched positions that leave them far apart.

The Icelandic parliament decided after an emergency session how to stage a national referendum on repaying almost €4bn to Britain and the Netherlands over the collapse of the Icesave bank – a poll that is seen as a defining moment in the bankrupted country’s economic recovery.

Alaska governor Sarah Palin defended her unexpected decision to resign just as she tries to elevate her national profile before a possible 2012 presidential run.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama strode head-on yesterday into the stormy abortion debate and told graduates at America’s leading Roman Catholic university that both sides must stop demonising one another.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama joined commencement ceremonies yesterday at North America’s leading Catholic university – amid protests over his support of abortion rights and stem cell research.

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

The report of the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency makes alarming reading in relation to the apparent level of intolerance in this country.

BARACK OBAMA stands on the brink of history today as polls last night gave the Democrat a solid lead over John McCain on the last day of campaigning for the most dramatic US presidential vote in a generation.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama turned his attention to the troubled US economy today after he surged to his largest ever lead over his Republican rival John McCain following his high-profile overseas tour.

VODAFONE’S inclusion of a bullfighting scene in its current TV advert is both insensitive and offensive.

President George W Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history, according to a new poll.

The Democratic presidential nominee ought to be decided by July 1 in order to avoid bitter in-fighting, the party’s national committee chairman said today.

IRELAND has the highest level of assaults, sexual crimes and robberies in the EU and it’s going to get worse, according to a major report of victims’ experiences.

US President George Bush will defend his Iraq policy in an address to the American nation tonight, hoping to drum up fading support for the war as his approval rating hits a record low.

Americans are starting to go to the polls to decide whether George Bush or John Kerry will be their president for the next four years.

SENATOR John Kerry has erased US President George W Bush’s modest lead and the two candidates head into election day tied at 49%-49%, a nationwide USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll shows, as an extraordinarily bitter and expensive campaign prepared to end.

GEORGE W BUSH and John Kerry criss-crossed the United States today in a furious last-minute sprint to win votes in today’s election.

MANY political pundits have been writing off John Kerry because he is clearly behind in the public opinion polls.

REPUBLICANS initially dismissed Fahrenheit 9/11 as a cinematic screed that would play mostly to inveterate Bush-bashers.

THE death of actor- turned-president Ronald Reagan has offered distraction to a country exhausted by months of grim news from Iraq and ripe for an outpouring of nostalgia, experts said yesterday.

US president George Bush is spelling out details tonight of the handover of power to an Iraqi government, in an attempt to calm fears about rising casualties and spreading violence.

Saddam Hussein’s government may have executed 61,000 Baghdad residents, a number significantly higher than previously believed, according to a survey today.

More than two-thirds of Baghdad residents would like to see US troops stay longer than a few more months, but many still have sharply mixed feelings about their presence troops, a poll says.

President George W. Bush’s job approval rating, which had slumped in several recent polls, has bounced back to 56% in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll released today.

HOLLYWOOD superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger is in his strongest position yet in his bid to become the next Governor of California, a poll has revealed.

Swedes were today voting on whether to adopt the euro after a shadow was cast over the referendum by the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.

President George Bush’s job approval rating has dropped to 52%, close to the lowest level of his presidency, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll.

The Swedish government’s attempts to boost support for adopting the euro are not working, opinion polls asserted today, four days ahead of a national referendum.

UP to 60% of Hungarians are expected to vote to join the EU in today’s referendum. If it is carried as expected, Hungary will be the third of the 10 candidates to approve membership

A clear majority of Britons now back the war against Iraq, according to a poll published today.