Russia has responded to a European Union move to lift its arms embargo for Syrian rebels by considering giving president Bashar Assad more high-powered missiles – raising the prospect of a new foreign-fed arms race in the Middle East.

A senior Russian diplomat has warned the West against trying to predetermine a future leadership of Syria.

The Security Council has agreed to end the UN military observer mission in Syria in the face of an escalating civil war.

ALTHOUGH it has become somewhat trendy to denigrate the leadership of Éamon de Valera, he led by magnificent example both at home and on the world stage in the 1930s.

Pakistan’s president faced fresh calls to step down today after being stripped of an amnesty that protected him from corruption charges.

IRELAND has never used the veto in its 35-year membership of the European Union.

FIRST, the positives. Munster have progressed to the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup for the ninth consecutive season as a result of yesterday’s three-point victory over Bourgoin.

THE Government has been asked to make three key changes over the next three months to improve children’s rights, including giving children an independent legal voice in their parents divorce proceedings.

Some Nato members shifted away from a confrontation with the US today, welcoming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s explanation of Washington’s views on secret prisons and the treatment of terrorist suspects.

The Iraq prisoner abuse scandal shifted to the question of whether the Bush administration set up a legal foundation that opened the door for the mistreatment.