Two journalists from America’s National Public Radio were left less than impressed after three government ministers cancelled three separate interviews.

Brendan Gleeson has revealed he was molested as a child by a Christian Brother who "dropped the hand" on him in primary school.

Hillary Clinton defended her initial opposition to gay marriage, denying in a radio interview that political reasons were behind her shift last year to supporting same-sex marriage.

Hillary Clinton has defended her initial opposition to gay marriage, denying in a radio interview that political reasons were behind her shift last year to supporting same-sex unions.

The New York Times’ website went down for several hours in its second major disruption this month, with a hacker group calling itself the “Syrian Electronic Army” claiming responsibility.

US President Barack Obama will today send Congress his 2014 budget, in an effort to achieve an elusive “grand bargain” to tame runaway deficits that have soared above 1 trillion dollars (€761bn) for each of the past four years.

Greek and French votes have chosen a change in their leaders but the markets still seem in total control, writes Paddy Woodworth

A SENIOR Pakistani intelligence official revealed that one of Osama bin Laden’s daughters had seen her father being shot dead by US forces, and was one of about 10 relatives of the al-Qaida leader in custody pending interrogation.

A US news analyst has been fired by National Public Radio after saying that he gets nervous when he sees people in Islamic clothes on a plane.

AL-QAIDA chief Osama bin Laden is involved in an unfolding plot to launch attacks on European cities and may have also targeted the United States, a radio report said.

Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi "should have died in jail", David Cameron said today as he sought to calm renewed criticism in the United States of his release amid fresh questions over the role played by BP.

AN American journalist held for four months in Iran was freed yesterday and reunited with her parents after an appeals court suspended her eight-year prison sentence on charges of spying for the US.

Iran’s judiciary has confirmed an appeals court will hear the case of an American journalist convicted of spying next week.

An American journalist jailed in Iran has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison just days after she was tried behind closed doors, her lawyer said today.

Jada Pinkett Smith is bemused by longstanding rumours that her marriage to Will Smith is simply a cover to hide their real sexual orientations.

IRAN’S president blamed US military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets.

A BBC cameraman was released after being held in Iraq by the US for 23 days, a military spokesman confirmed today.

The UN nuclear watchdog chief warned in comments aired today that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast to a “ball of fire” and lead Iran to a more-aggressive stance on its controversial nuclear programme.

Sporadic gunshots rang out today in a main Rift Valley city as Kenyans forced from their homes by post-election ethnic violence threatened to seek revenge.

HOT, dry Santa Ana winds have fanned the blazes which have ravaged southern California this week.

Coalition officials have confirmed that a battle between US forces and Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan caused civilian casualties.

THE other morning here in Seattle, National Public Radio ran a piece on what the reporter referred to, in a quizzical tone, as the flood of immigration into Ireland in the last five years.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell held out the possibility that pre-war Iraq may not have possessed weapons of mass destruction.

The CIA named a new inspector to lead the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, choosing a veteran investigator who has expressed scepticism that Saddam Hussein possessed banned weapons that posed an immediate threat.

US Vice President Dick Cheney said that the Bush administration has not given up on the so far fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The “jury is still out”, he said.

PRELIMINARY tests on substances found at a military training camp in central Iraq suggest they may contain a cocktail of banned chemical weapons, including deadly nerve agents, US officers said last night.

United States tanks and armoured vehicles made a bold incursion into Baghdad and swept through southern suburbs of the Iraqi capital, neutralising intermittent resistance by President Saddam Hussein’s loyalists.

This weekend's Guinness Jazz Festival in Cork is set to provide a major boost for Irish tourism.

US president George Bush, armed with congressional authority to oust Saddam Hussein, is reviewing post-war plans for Iraq that could include deploying American troops to stabilise the nation until a new government is formed.