NEXT week’s annual Positive Farmers Conference is billed by organisers as the most important dairy conference in Ireland in 25 years.

Dublin traders unveiled a new map today pinpointing the best of the capital’s hidden gems and homegrown hotspots.

Northern Rock’s former deputy chief executive was handed a record fine and banned for life today as the City regulator lifted the lid on staff manipulation of mortgage arrears figures at the lender.

AN inquiry was under way last night to examine the roles played by teachers, doctors and social workers in the years leading up to the killings of Davina and Jasmine Baker.

A woman who stabbed her two teenage daughters to death as they slept took one to a doctor two days before the attack and appeared “light-hearted”, a court heard today.

Fifty-four people, including two dozen civilians, were killed as clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants escalated today.

Six Palestinian militants, including the son of a hardline Hamas leader, were killed in an Israeli air strike today.

THREE Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed yesterday in the latest Israeli military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.

The Israeli Cabinet today voted overwhelmingly to release 90 Palestinian prisoners in an effort to shore up the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in his power struggle with Islamic Hamas militants.

Israel should turn over Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal with the moderate government of President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s deputy prime minister said today in some of the frankest remarks to date about what Israel might be willing to relinquish.

A Palestinian rocket exploded in an Israeli army base early today, wounding 50 soldiers and drawing Israeli calls for a major military operation against rocket squads in the Gaza Strip.

a meeting with the Palestinian leader today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed releasing some prisoners, lifting some West Bank roadblocks and establishing a team to work on a broad agreement in advance of a US-sponsored peace conference in November.

Tropical Storm Gabrielle swirled towards North Carolina today, but its promised rain and high winds were not enough to scare residents and holidaymakers away from the beach.

ISRAEL yesterday said it would expel refugees from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, touching off hot debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi genocide, has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.

Israel said today it would turn away refugees from the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan in an effort to stop the flow of Africans across Israel’s southern border with Egypt.

Ehud Olmert will today become the first Israeli prime minister to visit a Palestinian city since the outbreak of fighting seven years ago.

Israeli Cabinet ministers today approved a list of 256 Palestinian prisoners due to be released this week in a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, officials said.

The Israeli Cabinet today approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, officials said, in the government's latest gesture of support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

A 39-year-old woman will today appear in court charged with murdering her two teenage daughters, police say.

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders today called off a planned summit this week, dealing a new setback to efforts to halt nearly a month of fighting between the Israeli army and militants in the Gaza Strip and restart peacemaking.

Israeli aircraft attacked Palestinian rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip today, the army said, as Israel persisted in its two-week operation meant to stop the crude projectiles.

Israeli-Palestinian violence escalated dangerously when Israel killed five militants in airstrikes and hinted Hamas political leaders could be their next target.

Israel and Syria have reached understandings on a future peace deal between the two countries following a series of secret talks between its representatives, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported today.

Israeli ground troops, tanks and armoured vehicles advanced into two Gaza Strip towns today in pursuit of Palestinian rocket squads, even as the Red Cross - in a major blow to aid efforts – suspended activities in the impoverished territory after two of its workers were briefly kidnapped.

An Israeli woman died from wounds sustained today in a Palestinian rocket attack on the southern town of Sderot.

Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and ground troops tightened their grip today on a northern Gaza town, killing an elderly civilian, two militants and a police officer in Israel’s biggest push in months to stop Palestinian rocket fire.

Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and ground troops tightened their grip today on a northern Gaza town they overran yesterday, killing two Palestinians in Israel’s biggest push in months to stop militant rocket fire.

ISRAEL intensified its attacks against Lebanon yesterday, imposing a naval blockade, twice hitting Beirut’s airport and blasting two Lebanese army air bases near Syria.

Israel’s security chiefs have met to discuss the Jewish state’s response to a suicide bombing at a packed Tel Aviv fast-food restaurant during the Passover holiday that killed nine people and injured dozens.

An offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party has carried out its first suicide bombing against Israel since a February 2005 truce.

A PALESTINIAN suicide bomber trying to enter Israel blew himself up yesterday at a military checkpoint set up to foil attackers, killing an Israeli soldier and two other Palestinians.

A PALESTINIAN suicide bomber standing in line at a crowded falafel stand blew himself up yesterday in the central Israeli town of Hadera.

Israel slapped tough travel restrictions on the West Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed three young Israelis and wounded four others in a drive-by shooting at a crowded bus stop near Jewish settlements.

Israel demanded tougher action against militants and Palestinians blamed the Jewish state for an escalation in violence after a Palestinian suicide bomber targeted a bus station in Beersheba.

A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up outside an Israeli bus station during morning rush hour yesterday.

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba today, wounding at least 10 people, two critically, in the first such attack since Israel began its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this month.

Palestinian police and Hamas militants exchanged gunfire in a crowded Gaza City neighbourhood today, and at least nine people were wounded in some of the worst fighting among Palestinians in recent years. Palestinian security forces were placed on high alert throughout Gaza.

The flare-up in violence in the Gaza Strip could delay Israel’s planned withdrawal from the crowded coastal area if Israel is forced to launch a new military campaign against Palestinian militants, a senior Israeli official warned today.

The Palestinians’ ruling Fatah Party appeared to be bouncing back from corruption and inefficiency charges to show strength in local elections that could provide momentum toward a summer parliamentary election showdown with Hamas.

The top Palestinian security commander promised swift action to stop violence against Israel today after a suicide bombing in Gaza disrupted fledgling efforts by Mahmoud Abbas to coax militants into halting their attacks.

Israeli leaders backed away from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s latest threats against Yasser Arafat, saying there are no immediate plans to kill the Palestinian leader.

At least five people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a crowded Jerusalem bus this morning.

Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinian militants, including a one-armed leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group, in a gun battle in a Gaza refugee camp today, Palestinian witnesses and doctors said.

AN Israeli raid on a Gaza refugee camp killed eight Palestinians yesterday in the worst violence in the Gaza Strip in two months — just hours after a high-level Egyptian peace mission to Israel.