THERE is a scene in the 2007 low-brow, crooks-spooks-and-assassins film Shooter when Levon Helm, a decent actor but a great musician, assures lead actor Mark Wahlberg that the 1963 Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy involving a platoon of assassins. 

The post-Second World War generations let the good times roll too long, and John Lloyd asks if younger people will be forgiving if a myriad of threats aren’t taken seriously.

Three North Korean short-range ballistic missiles have failed, the US military said, in a temporary blow to Pyongyang's rapid nuclear and missile expansion.

Sebastian Gorka, a White House national security aide whose hardline policy views attracted controversy, has become the latest official to leave Donald Trump's administration.

President Donald Trump had a second, previously undisclosed conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Germany earlier this month.

The US president has publicly criticised his chief strategist, but it is the latter’s feud with Trump’s son-in-law that may push him out of the inner circle, says Shannon Pettypiece

It took investigators two years to break Watergate, and six years to uncover Iran-Contra, writes Tim Weiner. There is no guarantee the probe into Russia and the 2016 election will move any quicker

Bette Browne on all the president’s men (and women) who have the ear of the most powerful man in the world

Robert Harward has turned down an offer to be President Donald Trump's new national security adviser, the latest blow to the new administration.

It has been confirmed President Donald Trump asked his national security advisor to resign.

The Obama administration cancelled a planned meeting after the remarks.

Garda security chiefs have left “nothing to chance” in their preparations for expected trips by both President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny to France for Ireland’s Euro 2016 matches.

Irish-born UN ambassador Samantha Power’s trip to Cameroon was mired in controversy last night after a truck in her entourage hit and killed a young boy.

Gardaí are monitoring “a small number of people” but have stressed the threat level here remains low.

The National Security Council are closely monitoring a small number of people in the wake of the terror attacks in Brussels.

After suddenly landing in the path of the biggest migration in Europe for decades, Croatia said it could no longer offer them refuge and would wave them onwards, challenging the EU to find a policy to receive them.

Two British citizens who were fighting for so-called Islamic State (IS) were killed in an RAF drone strike in Syria which was carried out without parliamentary approval, prime minister David Cameron has said.

David Cameron pledged to help America “destroy” self-styled Islamic State (IS) extremists in Syria as he gave his clearest signal yet that UK forces could be asked to join air strikes.

Six Ukrainian servicemen were killed during the withdrawal from the fiercely contested town of Debaltseve, the country’s president has said.

US President Barack Obama confirmed the death of Kayla Mueller, a US aid worker who had been held hostage by Islamic State militants, saying the United States would “find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible”.

Jordan is going after Islamic State group militants wherever they are and plans to “wipe them out completely,” Jordan’s interior minister said.

Russia has failed to show up at a meeting planning the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, US and European officials say.

A ceasefire between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian government troops appeared to be largely holding in eastern Ukraine, a day after shelling and clashes rattled nerves and imperilled the peace deal.

Ebola represents a threat to all humanity and an outbreak of the virus in five West African countries will likely spread to more, American officials warned.

The White House has determined that a video showing the brutal killing of freelance journalist Steven Sotloff is authentic.

Russian military forces have been spotted in both major rebel-held cities in eastern Ukraine, an official said, prompting Ukraine to declare it now has to fight the Russian army, not just the separatists.

The White House has accused Russia of stepping up its destabilising activity in Ukraine in an “extremely dangerous and provocative” way.

A US Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US has concluded that the agency initially kept the secretary of state and some ambassadors uninformed about harsh techniques and secret prisons.

The United States has condemned as "ugly and disrespectful" racist comments directed at Barack Obama by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency, comparing the US president to a black "monkey" in a zoo.

Over the next month, two of President Barack Obama’s closest first-term advisers will spill insider details on the administration’s handling of the early days of the Great Recession, the White House’s cautious response to the Syrian civil war and the genesis of clandestine talks with Iran.

Former US president Bill Clinton was prepped to publicly scold the political leaders in Northern Ireland if they failed to get agreement during the talks on Good Friday 1998.

An eight-year-old girl has died and dozens of others have been wounded when gunmen attacked an anti-government protest in Thailand.

Beleaguered Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych says he has agreed to scrap harsh anti-protest legislation that sparked violent clashes.

Anti-government protesters held their ground through a night of violent street clashes in the Ukrainian capital, despite police moving in to dismantle barricades erected in a street leading to government offices.

Anti-government protests in Ukraine’s capital escalated into fiery street battles as thousands of demonstrators hurled rocks and firebombs to set police vehicles ablaze. Dozens of officers and protesters were injured.

The Obama administration is offering to destroy some of Syria’s deadliest chemical weapons in international waters using a US government ship.

AFTER feverishly trying to derail the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran in recent weeks, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu now has little choice but to accept an agreement that he has derided as deeply flawed.

Australia’s ambassador met Indonesian government officials who summoned him following reports the Australian Embassy in Jakarta is a hub for Washington’s secret electronic data collection programme.

The Obama administration is considering ending spying on allied heads of state, as the White House grapples with the fallout from revelations that the US has eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.