The United States is pulling out of Unesco after repeated criticism of resolutions by the UN cultural agency that Washington sees as anti-Israel.

A chemical weapons watchdog investigation has confirmed sarin was used in the deadly April 4 attack on Syrian town Khan Sheikhoun.

The World Health Organisation has declared an international emergency over the explosive spread of the mosquito-borne zika virus, which is linked to birth defects in the Americas, saying it is an “extraordinary event”.

UNESCO appeals to global community to protect heritage

Fifa is facing a serious revolt within the ranks against its ban on third party ownership (TPO) of players which was imposed in December, writes David Shonfield.

Two young women who claim they developed the sleeping disorder narcolepsy as a result of the swine flu jab are awaiting confirmation that the HSE will cover their medical expenses.

Mass evacuations have spared India the widespread deaths many had feared from a powerful cyclone that roared ashore over the weekend, officials have said.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) won the Nobel Peace Prize for working to eliminate the scourge that has haunted generations from the First World War to the battlefields of Syria.

The oldest surviving GAA President, Paddy McFlynn, whose death has occurred, was the first to be elected a year ahead of taking office.

Newstalk have confirmed that Pat Kenny is joining the station as presenter of its new mid-morning show.

WE’RE at the Subiaco Oval in Perth. It’s the first Test. Sitting in the press box, I can see that Páraic Duffy has stationed himself at the edge of the tunnel where the players will come onto the pitch.

Thailand's Buddhist monks are under investigation following complaints sparked by a video showing some flying on a private jet.

The late Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin, whose death was announced today at the age of 89, has been warmly remembered for his contribution to Gaelic Games, journalism and Irish life.

TEDDY McCarthy makes a stout defence of ousted Cork hurling manager Gerald McCarthy in the course of his autobiography, ‘Teddy Boy’, launched in Cork last night.

Jimmy Savile’s alleged catalogue of abuse could have spanned six decades and included around 60 victims, police said.

David Cameron raised the prospect today that Sir Jimmy Savile could be posthumously stripped of his knighthood amid allegations of sexual abuse against young girls.

The beheaded body of a British Red Cross worker held captive in Pakistan since January was found in an orchard, with a note attached saying he was killed because no ransom was paid, police said.

The EU jobless rate is at an all-time high, the European Commission warned today.

Bangladesh is to build a nuclear power station under a deal with Russia.

Libyans are being warned to guard against looting of their cultural heritage amid the country’s turmoil.

THE GAA are meeting with all the Irish financial institutions who are trustees of the Association, to determine if they will be impacted by the current banking crisis in the country.

DELEGATES were in no real mood to embrace changes in the playing rules experimented in the subsidiary competitions and the league in the early motions debated at last night’s opening session of the GAA Congress in Newcastle, Co. Down.

ERICH SEGAL died recently, classics professor and author of ‘Love Story’.

THE GAA will conclude their 125 celebrations on Sunday in Thurles, on the anniversary of the day the Association was founded in Hayes Hotel in 1884.

A SURPRISED world greeted the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama with a mixture of praise and scepticism.

The head of the World Health Organisation says the swine flu outbreak appears to have reached pandemic proportions.

BIRD flu kills more than 60% of its human victims, but doesn’t easily pass from person to person.

Mexico ordered all schools across the country to close today as the death toll from the swine virus outbreak climbed to 149.

Health experts were stepping up efforts to contain a deadly outbreak of swine flu today.

Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.

Churches stood empty today in heavily Roman Catholic Mexico City after services were cancelled, and health workers screened airports and bus stations for people sickened by a new strain of swine flu that experts fear could become a global epidemic.

Mexico’s president assumed new powers to isolate people infected with a deadly swine flu strain as authorities struggled to contain an outbreak that world health officials warned could become a global epidemic.

The head of the World Health Organisation said the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States could develop into a pandemic.

Fás officials can only travel executive class on airlines when absolutely necessary for business purposes under the official policy of the state employment agency, it emerged yesterday.

THE head of the UN nuclear monitoring agency angrily criticised Israel yesterday for bombing an alleged Syrian nuclear facility, and chastised the US for withholding information on the site.

THE prospects of an outline for a new global trade deal being agreed next month increased in the past week, according to reports from Geneva, where the negotiations are taking place.

Iran has been “somewhat vindicated” by a new US intelligence review that concludes the nation stopped developing a nuclear weapons programme in 2003, the head of the UN atomic watchdog agency said today.

HOT on the heels of the recent announcement that the GAA’s Director-General Liam Mulvihill is bowing out, the Association’s Public Relations Officer for the last 20 years, Danny Lynch said yesterday he will also be retiring early next year.

Using the internet to promote acts of terrorism will become a criminal offence under plans to be unveiled by the European Commission today.