FORMER President Mary Robinson has travelled to the Far East to play a key role in an international delegation aiming to ease tensions between the warring North and South Koreas.

Audio equipment millionaire Sidney Harman, who bought Newsweek magazine last year and oversaw its merger with The Daily Beast, has aged 92.

THE economic infrastructure of the future state of Palestine is based on three pillars: human resources, tourism and agriculture.

Two rebel groups clashed with Southern Sudan’s military ahead of the region’s independence referendum, resulting in at least nine deaths, and a top security chief said today that he suspected the groups were trying to depress voter turnout.

Ryle Dwyer on how Irish affairs figured in US politics as Reagan came to power

* January 6: Three members of UDR killed by an IRA landmine near Castlewellan, Co Down.

FOR the third straight year, President Barack Obama ranks as the man most admired by people living in the US, according to an annual USA Today-Gallup poll.

Ex-US President Jimmy Carter was taken to hospital today after suffering a stomach upset on a flight in the United States.

An American held captive for seven months in North Korea stepped off a plane in his home town today, looking thin but joyful as he hugged the former president who had helped win his release and family and friends surrounded him in a group embrace.

An American who was jailed for illegally crossing the border into North Korea was released after a visit to the Communist country by former US President Jimmy Carter.

The son of a US politician has dismissed a claim by former US President Jimmy Carter that an outburst during a speech by Barack Obama was "based on racism."

Hamas is ready to talk with American President-elect Barack Obama, the leader of the Palestinian group said today.

IT IS almost too late for an October surprise. But Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain should be wary of the last weekend.

The first debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, seen by an estimated 52.4 million viewers, was a TV ratings flop, a US research firm said.

Israel increased the trickle of badly needed goods flowing into the Gaza Strip today, a military spokesman said, in the latest stage of a four-day-old truce with Hamas militants.

PATRICK SEALE might be a writer on Middle East topics, but he knows little about American politics (May 26). If he did, he would not spend time in a vitriolic diatribe against a president who has done just about all that he can because he is working with a Congress, the majority of whom are not of his party and without whose approval he cannot spend money.

BARACK OBAMA’s political career boasts a long list of firsts.

After days of hammering at Republican rival John McCain, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama struck a conciliatory note and urged unity in service of a greater good in a speech to college graduates.

Nelson Mandela celebrates his 89th birthday in South Africa today with a star-studded soccer match and the launch of a humanitarian campaign along with former President Jimmy Carter, ex-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other “elders” of the global village.

Fidel Castro today accused US President George Bush of both “authorising and ordering” an attempt on his life, but said he believed neither former President Jimmy Carter nor Bill Clinton ever tried to kill him.

US President George Bush will tomorrow visit areas hit by a tornadoes that have killed at least 20 people in several American states, including eight students at an Alabama high school.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today said the United States is “very concerned” about the plight of the Palestinians and pledged to improve living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Reunited at last in death, Coretta Scott King was laid to rest beside the tomb of her husband after a stirring funeral with 10,000 mourners that was both lyrical and mournful, and at times political.

Violence from Liberia’s war spilled across borders, and today the west African nation held its first presidential elections since fighting ended.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush said yesterday that "many questions" have been raised by allegations of some former American hostages that Iran's president-elect was one of their captors in the late 1970s.

US President George W Bush yesterday left open the possibility that the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be shut down following mounting criticism from former President Jimmy Carter and others.

The world of Christendom, like an extended family, yesterday held vigil for Pope John Paul II, who lay unconscious and gravely ill in his Vatican sickbed.

FANCY living like a lord on the banks of the River Blackwater? — then here’s your chance. Mallow Castle comes on the market this week with a €7 million-plus price tag.

America’s sprinters have sent a message to the rest of the world from the US Olympic trials: You have no chance in Athens.

ISRAELI and Palestinian activists yesterday launched an unofficial peace treaty aimed at ending one of the world’s most intractable conflicts, backed by a gathering of Nobel peace prize winners including former President Jimmy Carter.

The US is planning to impose sanctions on Cuba to punish Fidel Castro for his recent crackdown on dissidents, officials said today.

One hundred and fifty-one nominations have been received for the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize so far - many of them related to the response to the September 11 attacks.

Former US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who served under the administration of President Jimmy Carter, has died. He was aged 84.

Eleven years after he lost power in an election, former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega ran a strong chance to regain the presidency in elections in Nicaragua today despite US efforts to dent his campaign.

A former revolutionary on the run in the US for 25 years has appeared in court.

Paul C Warnke, an early disarmament proponent who served as a key arms control negotiator and defence adviser for three Democratic presidents, died yesterday. He was 81.

The jury has retired in the $5.1m defamation lawsuit against Watergate burglar G Gordon Liddy.