IN his desperate attempts to defend Bertie Ahern, Senator Eoghan Harris berates the Mahon Tribunal for taking so long and costing so much.

Baghdad was under renewed heavy bombardment tonight as US troops engaged in fierce battles with Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guards protecting the approaches to the Iraqi capital.

Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath today denied that he tried to browbeat the chairman of the original Bloody Sunday Inquiry into exonerating the British soldiers who carried out the killings.