The WHO chief wasn’t told of the scale of the crisis until three months after it was detected and bureaucratic messes delayed deployment of vital aid, write Jason Gale and John Lauerman

The Synod of Bishops must embrace reform. There is something skewed about asking male celibates to review the Church’s teaching on family life, according to TP O’Mahony

The European Union yesterday forged a unified response to the rapid advance of Islamic militants in Iraq and the resulting refugee crisis, allowing direct arms deliveries to Kurdish fighters battling the Sunni insurgents. Several EU nations pledged more humanitarian aid.

A militant group is recruiting in the oil exporting nation, say Glen Carey and Deema Almashabi

Musical leads faithful back to the future

“A Jesuit intellect and a Franciscan spirit may be exactly the combination of heart and head that the Church needs at this time.”

The sharp knives of politics have prepared the new pope well, say Joshua Goodman and Juan Pablo Spinetto.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro surprised Venezuelans with a Christmas Eve announcement that President Hugo Chavez is up and walking two weeks after cancer surgery in Cuba, but the news did little to ease uncertainty surrounding the leader’s condition.

Women who eat a fatty diet when pregnant could unwittingly be increasing the risk of their daughters and granddaughters getting breast cancer, research has shown.

The Catholic archbishop-elect of San Francisco has apologised for his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving, saying he brought “shame” and “disgrace” on himself and the church.

WE demonise as ‘sharks’ the greedy financial fools who laid this country so low, but that is to credit them with too much cunning and glamour — they were just dolphins on the make.

Former taoiseach Brian Cowen has defended his government’s blanket bank guarantee in 2008 but said it should have raised taxes and cut spending.

Controversial US conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has apologised to a law student he branded a “slut” and “prostitute” amid a storm of criticism from Republican and Democrat politicians and advertisers who severed ties with his radio programme.

Thousands of Egyptian women have taken to the streets of Cairo in a mass demonstration against the military’s brutality against women during a crackdown on protesters that shocked many in the largely conservative society.

Attitudes about Muslim-Western relations have become slightly more positive in the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Russia compared with five years ago, but negative views persist on both sides, a survey said.

A News Corp board member said today embattled chief executive Rupert Murdoch had the full support of the company's board of directors and denied it was considering replacing him with chief operating officer Chase Carey.

Bradley Cooper has branded Russell Crowe "s**t".

MORE research is needed before it can be claimed that probiotics prevent common childhood illnesses, an Irish dietitian has contended.

Rampant government corruption might derail the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan even if up to 80,000 more US troops go to the war zone, the top military commander says.

The US economy is continuing to contract but there are tentative signs that falling activity may be stabilising, the Federal Reserve has said.

Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair will be honoured by Queen’s University Belfast today for their role in the North's peace process.

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern are being honoured by Queen’s University Belfast for their role in the North's peace process.

I FIND it deeply worrying that in the same week in which Bertie Ahern and his colleagues received disgusting pay increases, the CSO released statistics revealing that the rich/poor gap is as wide as ever and that childhood poverty is still a very real and prevalent factor in modern Irish society.

A Chilean court today ordered the release on bail of General Augusto Pinochet’s widow, five children and former associates, two days after they were arrested on corruption charges.

WITH the White House bracing for guerrilla warfare on the home front politically if Republicans lose control of Congress, President George W Bush is seeking to shift the debate away from Iraq and scandal and boost his reputation for economic competence.

Thirty-eight Muslim scholars and chief muftis from numerous countries have accepted Pope Benedict XVI’s apology for his remarks on Islam, the editor of a Muslim journal said today.

Iraqi witnesses today recounted how seven US Marines and a Navy corpsman kidnapped an Iraqi man from his home and shot him dead.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today condemned Iran's decision to resume its nuclear programme, saying that the international community is united in mistrusting the Islamic republic and its present leadership with such technology.

President George W Bush’s re- election campaign raised less money than Democrat John Kerry for the fourth consecutive month as Kerry worked to boost his fundraising ahead of his party’s national convention next week.

Portuguese Prime Minister and European Commission presidential nominee José Manuel Durao Barroso, 48, began his political life as a leader of the Maoist movement in Lisbon University in the lead-up to the revolution that ended the country’s dictatorship in 1974.

The US and Saudi-educated head of Iraq’s Governing Council was named as president of the interim government today, after the Americans’ preferred candidate turned down the post.

IN HIS first public defence of pre-war intelligence, CIA Director George Tenet yesterday said US analysts never claimed Iraq posed an imminent threat.

CIA director George Tenet said today Saddam Hussein’s Iraq posed “no imminent threat” in the months leading up the invasion.

Jackie Kennedy considered asking her husband’s brother Robert to bring up their young children following the American president’s assassination in 1963, it was claimed today.

Jacqueline Kennedy, books under her arm, walks with fellow students to an American history class.

US researchers have pinpointed a gene that promotes the spread of cancer through the body.

The US government has set a deadline of August 14 for many of the nation’s largest companies to submit sworn statements from their chief executive and chief financial officers guaranteeing the accuracy of recent financial reports, in an unprecedented move to help restore investor confidence.