Terrorist attacks across three continents last Friday demonstrate the influence of Islamic State and wide reach, as well as the difficulties of countering its use of the internet to galvanise and inspire global violence.

THE tens of millions of words, in many, many languages, written about last Friday’s terror attacks in Tunisia, and the millions more yet unpublished, are part of the dividend sought by the murderers.

Welcome to your Tuesday morning briefing. Let us ensure you’re up to speed on what’s happening and are prepared for the day ahead.

Aurivo Co-operative Society Ltd has been endorsed by Connacht Gold shareholders as the west coast co-op’s new name.

President Barack Obama promised a grieving Boston to hunt down whoever was responsible for the deadly bombing at the marathon, while investigators focused on a man seen dropping off a bag and walking away from the site of the second of Monday’s two explosions.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the FBI wants to speak to two men seen in at least one video from the Boston Marathon.

Homeland is a scheme of just six houses, says Tommy Barker

AN oil platform exploded and caught fire yesterday off the Louisiana coast, spreading a mile-long oil sheen into the Gulf of Mexico. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water in their protective “Gumby suits”.

INVESTIGATORS spoke to the registered owner of an SUV used as a homemade car bomb in a failed terror attack in the heart of Times Square, police officials said, but would not say what they learned.

Barack Obama warned of a “massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster” as a wrecked BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico spewed a widening and deadly slick towards delicate wetlands and wildlife.

POLICE found an “amateurish” but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle in Times Square, authorities said yesterday.

BP’s chairman defended his company’s safety record today, and said “a failed piece of equipment” was to blame for a massive oil spill along the Gulf Coast of America.

A MASSIVE oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has become far worse than initially thought crept toward the coast yesterday as US government officials offered help from the military to prevent a disaster that could destroy fragile marshlands along the shore.

Blocked toilets, crying babies and airless cabins make air travellers furious – and the US government says they don’t have to take it any more.

Families carrying photos of lost loved ones streamed into a plaza near “ground zero” in New York today to observe the eighth anniversary of the World Trade Centre attack, wiping tears and raindrops from their faces under dreary skies.

WASHINGTON is bracing itself for an onslaught today as the city’s population begins to swell in anticipation of tomorrow’s inauguration of Barack Obama as America’s first black president.

Some of the two million residents who fled New Orleans and Louisiana to escape Hurricane Gustav were returning to their homes today.

IRISH people travelling to the US are to face tighter restrictions by having to register their personal details online in advance of their trip.

Thousands of Americans have barricaded their homes against a powerful storm which has led to flights being ground, road closures and power cuts.

Controversial US attorney general Alberto Gonzales has announced he will resign his position as the United States’ top law enforcement official.

Alberto Gonzales, the first Hispanic attorney general in the US, announced his resignation today, driven from office after a wrenching stand-off with congressional critics over his honesty and competence.

The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba and move terror suspects from there to military prisons on US soil, it emerged last night..

EVERYBODY travelling to the United States will have to send their details two days in advance for clearance, Michael Chertoff, US Secretary for Homeland Security, told parliamentarians in Brussels.

Black US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been given Secret Service protection amid fears for his safety, a senior law enforcement source said today.

US SENATE Republican Leader Bill Frist yesterday called for the Bush administration to stop a deal permitting a United Arab Emirates company to take over six American seaports, upping the ante on a fight that several congressmen, governors and mayors are waging with the White House.

America’s former disaster chief Michael Brown, who became the personification of the government’s listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said he told top officials of massive flooding in New Orleans on the day the storm howled ashore.

Two Broadway stars have signed on for the new season of Fox’s action-drama 24.

A series of leaked emails has revealed infighting and chaos at the heart of the US government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

Some immigrants used false documents to enter the United States, others let their legal visas expire once in the country. And at least 21 foreign nationals became naturalised US citizens before being charged or convicted as terrorists.

The orange alert instituted two weeks ago for US mass transit systems is likely to be prolonged after the latest terrorist attacks in London.

The United States is tightening security in the face of a steady stream of intelligence indicating that al-Qaida may seek to mount an attack aimed at disrupting the November elections, the White House says.

Sweeping baggage checks for passengers on the “very open” US rail transit systems are impractical despite the spectre of terrorist threats, a high-level Bush administration official said yesterday.

ALLIES of President Vladimir Putin won a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections, but human rights officials condemned the vote on Monday as short of international legal requirements and a retreat from Russia’s democratic reforms.

The US Homeland Security Department has unveiled a major new advertising campaign that uses television, radio, newspapers and billboards to urge Americans to prepare for possible terrorist attacks.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush led an administration effort yesterday to reassure a nation unnerved by a raised terror threat warning by telling Americans: “We’re trying to protect you.”

TERRORISTS could try to strike again soon in the United States, according to FBI chief Robert Mueller.

Tens of thousands of letters mailed around the US could have picked up trace amounts of anthrax while passing through a contaminated postal centre, the nation’s top anthrax investigator has said.

Fears were today mounting that the danger to the public from America’s anthrax outbreak was greater than had initially been believed.