When he decided he just wasn't good enough to be a newspaper cartoonist, Jeff Kinney decided he had to find another way to get his illustrations published. It would be the origins of publishing phenomenon, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, he tells Rowena Walsh.

It will be used to build 92km of fencing and improve roads.

Nato's secretary-general has warned that the military alliance will respond to what it insists are Russia's violations of a key Cold War-era treaty - but will not station more nuclear missiles in Europe.

The US president’s hard line on deportation and immigration is too late to prevent a major demographic shift to non-whites, who tend to vote for the Democrats, says Bette Browne.

The US has looked on as the vision of a democratic-led Indo-Pacific could give way to an illiberal, repressive regional order, with China in full control, writes Brahma Chellaney.

Hazapour sprang a shock in the Group 3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown, overcoming Ballydoyle colts Delano Roosevelt and The Pentagon and booking his ticket to the Investec Derby at Epsom

Aidan O’Brien is triple-handed as he bids to extend his tremendous record in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown tomorrow.

Donald Trump has pledged "strong action today" on immigration, a day after he said he wants to use the military to secure the US-Mexico border until his "big, beautiful wall" is erected.

President Donald Trump insists he is "not backing down" on his plan to impose stiff tariffs on imported steel and aluminium despite anxious warnings from House Speaker Paul Ryan and other congressional Republicans of a possible trade war.

Russia's defence ministry has displayed a pair of drones that it said were captured following attacks on two Russian military bases in Syria.

The US has agreed to delay joint military exercises with South Korea until after the Winter Olympics, the Pentagon has said.

The US Justice Department has made clear its proposed ban on transgender military recruits is on hold.

Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it possible, though difficult, for them to join the armed services.

The gunman who slaughtered 26 people at a Texas church was able to buy weapons because the US Air Force failed to report his domestic violence conviction to the federal database that is used to conduct background checks on would-be gun purchasers, authorities said.

Somalia's president is expected to announce a "state of war" against the al-Shabab extremist group after last week's truck bombing which killed 358 people in Mogadishu.

Latest: US President Donald Trump's insult, calling leader Kim Jong Un "rocket man", makes "our rocket's visit to the entire US mainland inevitable all the more", North Korea's foreign minister said.

A man believed to be an American citizen who was fighting with Islamic State militants has surrendered in Syria and is being held in American custody.

North Korea has fired a possible missile over northern Japan.

Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to extend indefinitely a ban on transgender people joining the US military, but appeared to leave open the possibility of allowing some already in uniform to remain.

The ousted White House chief strategist was anti US military intervention abroad (including in North Korea) and was clamping down on China’s unethical trade practices, says Josh Cohen.

President Donald Trump's plan to end the stalemate in Afghanistan and eliminate the rising extremist threat involves sending up to 3,900 additional US forces, senior officials said.

The Taliban have released an open letter to President Donald Trump, reiterating their calls for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan after 16 years of war.

A Taliban suicide bomber who struck a Nato patrol in Afghanistan, killing a service member and two civilians, had concealed his explosives beneath a woman's burka, a district governor said.

An errant US airstrike has killed 12 Afghan National Police officers who were fighting the Taliban and wounded two others.

US forces killed the head of the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan during an air strike earlier this week, the Pentagon says.

Tobin Harshaw talks to non-proliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis about North Korea’s nuclear programme and why the regime’s recent ICBM launch shouldn’t have come as a surprise

Latest: The US has seen chemical weapons activity at a Syrian air base used for a sarin gas attack in April, the Pentagon said.

The White House has issued a warning to Bashar Assad as it claimed "potential" evidence showed Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack.

The US has deployed a truck-mounted missile system into Syria, an official confirmed.

US president Donald Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was warned when he retired from the military in 2014 not to take foreign money without "advance approval" by Pentagon authorities, newly released documents show.

US president-elect Donald Trump has re-opened the debate over nuclear proliferation, calling for America to "greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability" until the rest of the world "comes to its senses" regarding nuclear weapons.

President-elect Donald Trump has said the United States should let China keep the navy unmanned underwater glider that it seized in the South China Sea.

China has said military officials are in contact with their American counterparts on "appropriately handling" the Chinese navy's seizure of a US Navy unmanned underwater glider, one of the most serious incidents between the forces in years.

A Chinese warship seized a US Navy unmanned underwater vehicle that was collecting unclassified scientific data in the South China Sea, the Pentagon has said.

A top commander in Syria's rebranded al Qaida affiliate who was close to terror network leader Ayman al-Zawahri has been killed in an air strike, the group said.

A Russian air strike killed the Islamic State group's spokesman and chief strategist, says Russia's defence ministry.

Fifteen prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre were sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the Obama administration, the Pentagon announced yesterday.

China rejects US claims warplanes manoeuvred unsafely

Hillary Clinton’s tough talk isn’t just talk. Throughout her career as a senator and US secretary of state, she displayed instincts on foreign policy that are far more aggressive than those of President Barrack Obama or any Democrat, writes Mark Landler.