Chinese security agents launched a wide-ranging clampdown on dissidents today, hours before the award Nobel Peace Prize award to imprisoned democracy activist Liu Xiaobo.

NOBEL peace prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari urged US president-elect Barack Obama yesterday to delve into solving the Middle East conflict in his first year in office, calling it a knot that could be untied.

President Mary McAleese today travels to Norway for a three-day state visit.

President Mary McAleese will travel to Norway next week for a three-day state visit.

Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today and called on humanity to mobilise at once against the dangers of a changing climate.

Al Gore and the UN climate panel’s chief scientist will accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway today for sounding the alarm over what the former US vice president called the “planetary emergency” of global warming.

CORK’S public museum was the most visited local authority museum in the country last year.

THE King and Queen of Norway found a safe harbour in Cork yesterday as the country was lashed by the tail end of a hurricane.

THE King and Queen of Norway found a safe harbour in Cork yesterday as the country was lashed by the tail end of a hurricane.

The King and Queen of Norway continue their three-day state visit to Ireland today with Queen Sonja attending the opening of a seminar on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen at Trinity College, Dublin.

THE King and Queen of Norway will witness the signing of a major education deal in Cork tomorrow between Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and a Norwegian college.

King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway today begin a three-day state visit to the Republic of Ireland.

Nuclear watchdog agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei warned today in accepting the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize that humanity faces a choice between nuclear weapons and survival.

MONACO prepared to say farewell to long-time ruler Prince Rainier with a solemn funeral in the Mediterranean statelet’s cathedral, attended by a smattering of European royals and political figures.

NORWAY’S Princess Martha Louise and her husband, writer Ari Behn, are expecting their second child.

IRAN’S Shirin Ebadi became the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday and sent a bold anti-war message to the West, accusing it of hiding behind the September 11 attacks to violate human rights.

SAYING that war is always evil, former US President Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday and urged the world to accept UN leadership in tackling challenges from the Middle East to global poverty.

The crew and owners of a Norwegian freighter that staged a daring high seas rescue of 438 asylum seekers last year were presented the Nansen Refugee Prize today as part of events marking World Refugee Day.