Siptu’s decision to threaten strike action means more than a third of the country’s 300,000 public servants could take to the picket line in a matter of weeks if the Government does not accede to their demands for a renegotiation of the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA).

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The commencement of talks between ASTI and Department of Education officials today should not be seen as a bright light of hope for resolution of their pay dispute, writes Niall Murray

Secondary schools will be closed for most of November and could close for seven days up to early December even if staff were found to cover duties being stopped by 18,000 teachers.

Young members of the Defence Forces are disillusioned and leaving the Army, Naval Service, and Air Corps in droves because they cannot afford to live on their wages.

With both Dublin Bus and Luas drivers securing double-digit wage increases and gardaí threatening strikes over their pay, two of the country’s leading trade unionists have called for a renegotiation of the latest public service pay agreement.

The head of a secondary school teachers union has said he believes his members “are heading towards an all out strike”.

The restoration of equal pay for younger teachers would be required if an imminent ballot for possible strikes at hundreds of second-level schools is to be called off, a union leader has said.

The first steps to establishing a public sector pay commission will be taken by the Cabinet this morning.

GRA says freeze may cost recruits €46k over career as Government says retrospective pay possible in deal

Gardaí and teachers outside of a new pay deal face pay freezes from today after the Government failed in a last-ditch attempt to get unions to sign up to the new agreement.

The Government could face industrial action by thousands of teachers and gardaí if it imposes financial penalties on them for repudiating the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

Hundreds of second-level schools face possible strikes later this year, because Education Minister Richard Bruton has said teachers will lose out on pay increases if they stop doing extra work.

Teachers risk losing the chance to narrow pay gaps for younger colleagues if they vote to stop doing extra work, the Department of Education has warned.

A commander in warlord Joseph Kony’s feared militia is making his first appearance before an International Criminal Court judge.

At least 68 elephants – about 4% of the population of one of Africa’s oldest parks – have been slaughtered by poachers over the last two months using chainsaws and helicopters, the non-profit group managing the park has warned.

The UN chief says African warlord Joseph Kony’s militia group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, killed 39 civilians this year in the Congo and the Central African Republic.

Dáithí O Sé, pictured here with Texas Rose Kelly Gaetano, will introduce the Rose Of Tralee on RTÉ One on Monday and Tuesday.

The United Nations has endorsed an African Union force to capture warlord Joseph Kony and neutralise his Lord’s Resistance Army.

The African Union will send 5,000 soldiers to join the hunt for rebel leader Joseph Kony in a new military mission officials say is necessary to remove the Lord’s Resistance Army from Central Africa’s vast jungle.

UGANDAN LRA rebels have kidnapped at least 700 people in attacks in Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic since February last year, a rights group said yesterday.

A human rights group said today a Ugandan rebel group known for committing atrocities has killed at least 255 adults and children in the past 18 months in Congo and Central African Republic.

More than 5,000 people whose lips and ears were cut off by rebels who have waged a more than 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda will receive compensation from the government, a presidential adviser said today.

The UN Security Council condemned the upsurge in attacks by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army in Congo, Central African Republic and Sudan and urged these countries to share information with the United Nations to try to protect civilians, especially women and children.

TV journalists protested outside their studios in the North today over proposed job cuts.

A pupil at the centre of a teachers’ strike which has forced the closure of a school is to face a criminal prosecution, it was disclosed today.

The decision to suspend striking teachers’ pay in Northern Ireland will be reviewed if they agree to seek mediation, the education minister said today.

Teachers expected to join industrial action at a secondary school in the North called today for independent mediators to become involved.

The threat of strike action at Ulster Carpets in Portadown was lifted today after management and unions agreed a new three-year pay deal.

CHILD soldiers are still being recruited in at least 13 countries from Afghanistan to Uganda, 10 years after international guidelines were agreed to eradicate their use, a British-based charity said last night.

The chief mediator of talks aimed at ending northern Uganda’s civil war has called both sides back to talks next week, but acknowledges the rebels might not come.

THE International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has nearly completed an investigation into war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region and has sufficient evidence to file charges soon, he said yesterday.

The UN’s humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, met a Ugandan rebel leader wanted for war crimes today.

THE UN humanitarian chief travelled to northern Uganda over the weekend to highlight what he called a forgotten humanitarian crisis, with about two million people made homeless and tens of thousands of children abducted in the region's 20-year insurgency.

EIGHT Guatemalan special forces soldiers deployed as UN peacekeepers in Eastern Congo were killed and five more were injured yesterday during an operation against Ugandan rebels, the United Nations said.

The International Criminal Court has issued its first arrest warrants, for five members of Uganda’s notoriously cruel Lord’s Resistance Army.

Ugandan helicopter gunships killed 54 insurgents after shelling a group of 250 rebel fighters based in neighbouring southern Sudan, an army spokesman said today.