Abortion Rights Campaigners say it is time Ireland's abortion laws are brought into line with the rest of Europe.

UPDATE 10.25pm:  The United Nation’s latest condemnation of Ireland’s abortion laws are “bordering on the ridiculous” according to the Pro Life Campaign.

France’s wine-making region Champagne and a part of Burgundy have been granted world heritage status by the United Nations, boosting tourism and the economy.

Welcome to your Tuesday morning briefing. Let us ensure you’re up to speed on what’s happening and are prepared for the day ahead.

The UN thinks it’s a good idea, but what do the Irish think of eating creepy crawlies, wonders Jonathan deBurca Butler.

The authorities in the North have failed to deal with the legacy of the past, human rights campaigners claimed today.

South Sudan's president has today vowed that the nation will not withdraw its troops that this week entered a disputed border region with Sudan.

Every few years the dark side of humanity reminds us of how bestial, how savage we can be when we put aside all the constraints of civilised behaviour.

A BOMB killed 15 people including 10 foreigners in Morocco’s bustling tourist destination of Marrakesh, state television said yesterday, in an attack that bore the hallmark of Islamist militants.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin will co-host an international conference on world hunger with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it was announced today.

Renegade soldiers seized the head of Guinea-Bissau’s armed forces and briefly detained the prime minister today in an apparent coup attempt, a minister said.

A MAN with Irish citizenship who was working on the United Nation’s (UN) peacekeeping mission in Haiti is missing, feared dead, after last week’s devastating earthquake, it has emerged.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he is pushing for a vote on a United Nation’s report that accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the Gaza war, reversing a decision that has left him at the lowest point of his presidency.

THE United Nation's Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned this week that as many as one billion people across the globe will go hungry this year as a result of the recession, and increasing global food prices.

YOUNG people must pressurise political leaders in order to meet the challenge of climate change, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change told delegates to the Partnership for Change — Climate Change Conference in Cork.

The fifth Beatle, George Martin, will be recognised by an Irish university for his lifetime contribution to the world of music as a producer and arranger, it was revealed today.

Millions of people are at risk after flooding and poor harvests caused North Korea’s worst food crisis since the late 1990s, the United Nation’s food agency warned today.

More than 240 people have died in Burma from a powerful cyclone, according to media reports.

Australia’s prime minister Kevin Rudd says the country is on track to meet its Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas emission target.

One of Hollywood’s top comic actors, Will Ferrell, will be honoured by an Irish university tonight.

Former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations’ chief climate scientist met Norwegian leaders early today to kick off the official programme leading up to them accepting the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo tomorrow.

GOVERNMENT moves to set-up a 50-strong expert volunteer team for rapid deployment in global disaster areas drew criticism from relief agencies last night.

The United Nation’s first all-female peacekeeping force – made up of 105 Indian policewomen – is set to deploy to the troubled west African country of Liberia, an official said today.

Wall Street rebounded in light trading today as lower oil prices encouraged investors to add to their portfolios in the final days of the year.

Asia will drive a massive online expansion by the end of the decade, helped by computer sharing and emerging mobile phone technology, the United Nation’s top Internet official has predicted.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was today trying to persuade European nations to contribute troops to the United Nation’s expanded peacekeeping force for Lebanon, building on the momentum created by France’s promise to provide 2,000 more soldiers.

The United Nation’s bird flu chief said yesterday that the three-year estimate of funds needed to stem the deadly virus in Africa could be as high as $1bn (€782m).

Drew Barrymore sought advice from Angelina Jolie before jetting off to Africa to photograph impoverished schoolchildren for Marie Claire magazine, because she felt the United Nations ambassador could give her travel tips.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is to be given right of entry to prisons and powers to compel witnesses to give evidence to it, under proposals published by the British government today.

Israel has welcomed the United Nation's condemnation of Iran's controversial remarks that the country should be "wiped off the map".

Iran pushed back plans to restart some nuclear activities today after calls from the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency to wait until a monitoring system is in place.

Significant measures must be put in place if Ireland is to meet commitments under the UN's Kyoto protocol on climate change, it was said today.

The United Nation’s scientific and cultural body today launched a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean region to prevent a repeat of December’s disaster.

More than half of the €548m in aid promised by US President George Bush will be given immediately to help those at risk from famine in Ethiopia and Eritrea, US officials in Rome said today.

THE world faces a “race against time” to prevent nuclear terror, the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog chief said yesterday, citing an extensive illicit market in nuclear and radioactive materials after the September 11 attacks.

European Union officials reacted cautiously to a proposal to set up immigrant processing camps outside EU borders, possibly in Libya or Ukraine.

Members of a new transitional parliament for Somalia were sworn in yesterday - a key step toward establishing Somalia’s first national government since 1991.

CHILDREN’S hats and shoes littered a bloody field cratered by gunfire yesterday after a US airstrike, aimed at a wanted Taliban commander, mistakenly killed nine children in an Afghan mountain village.

THE United Nation’s top envoy in Iraq was one of 20 people killed yesterday after a suicide bomber in a truck set off a massive explosion that tore through the organisation’s headquarters in Baghdad.

The heaviest shelling in a week of fighting rocked the centre of Liberia’s besieged capital Monrovia today.

Nato ambassadors today agreed to provide an alliance peacekeeping role in Afghanistan by offering to command the current deployment of troops there.

The United Nation’s nuclear agency today said it will give North Korea one more chance to abandon its covert weapons programme and allow inspectors back into the country.

East Timor has today become an independent state, after years of military occupation by Indonesian forces.