NOT every father and son have Marlon Brando on hand to break up their fights.

Robin Williams thought Sofia Vergara was "kick ass funny" when they worked on 'Happy Feet Two' together.

In the 2006 animated blockbuster 'Happy Feet', an alienated emperor penguin named Mumbles found empowerment through tap-dancing, and in so doing managed to both attract a mate and stop the overfishing that imperiled his Antarctic habitat.

LIFE is fraught for Charlie Sheen.

THE son of an Israeli astronaut who died in the space shuttle Columbia disaster six years ago was killed yesterday when his F-16 warplane crashed on a routine training flight, the Israeli military said.

Valencia, Braga, Wolfsburg, Aston Villa, Hamburg and Ajax booked their places in the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup after a pulsating evening of European football that delivered 26 goals across eight games.

Pages from an Israeli astronaut's diary which survived the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia and a 37-mile fall to earth are going on display this weekend for the first time in Jerusalem.

Israeli aircraft struck today against Gaza militants who have bombarded border communities with rockets.

Gaza City awoke today to shuttered bread shops and petrol stations today as Israel pressed ahead with efforts to stop Palestinian rocket fire, refusing to reopen crossings or allow in crucial fuel supplies.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to begin tackling the core issues of a final peace agreement in a last-minute push to breathe life into stalled negotiations before US president George Bush's arrival in the Middle East today.

The Palestinians are ready to yield parts of the West Bank to Israel if compensated with an equal amount of Israeli territory, according to the lead Palestinian negotiator.

SENIOR Israeli officials expressed support yesterday for the transfer of Arab parts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control, offering a concession on one of the most contentious issues in the Middle East conflict.

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.

Israel killed a top Islamic Jihad militant in an airstrike just hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he hoped to reach a full peace deal with Israel in less than a year.

Ramon Castro said his younger brother Fidel was doing very well almost eight months after surgery, but dodged reporters’ questions about whether the Cuban leader would soon appear in public.

Israel’s minister for justice, a close ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, today announced he was resigning to clear the way for a trial on charges of sexual harassment.

Israel’s justice minister, a top ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, faces possible indictment on sexual harassment charges, in a new blow to a government that emerged politically weakened this week from a 34-day war against Lebanese guerrillas

When accused drug kingpin Francisco Javier Arellano Felix began planning a deep-sea fishing trip more than a year ago, US drug agents also got ready – to catch their prey.

Hezbollah fired an enormous barrage of rockets at towns across northern Israel today, killing 10 people in the worst attack on Israel since the violence began on July 12, rescue services said.

In a major expansion of its ground offensive, Israel decided to send troops deeper into Lebanon, up to the Litani River some 18 miles from the Israeli border, to clear out Hezbollah fighters and hold the territory until a multi-national force is deployed there, senior officials said today.

Israel will “expand and strengthen” its attack on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, the defence minister said today, diminishing hopes that a 48-hour halt in air strikes could be turned into a longer-term ceasefire.

The European Union said today that Israel misinterpreted the outcome of the Middle East conference in Rome and that the fighting in Lebanon should cease immediately.

Israeli Cabinet ministers today decided not to expand the country’s Lebanon offensive, but ordered the call up of tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to boost the campaign, officials said.

In failing to agree on a call for an immediate Middle East ceasefire, the world has given Israel permission to press ahead with its military offensive in Lebanon, a senior Israeli cabinet minister said today.

Israel must unleash massive air strikes against villages in south Lebanon to clear out Hezbollah gunmen, an Israeli cabinet minister said today, as the Israeli government was to decide whether to broaden the military offensive against the Lebanese guerrillas.

A senior Israeli Cabinet minister today warned of a harsh military response in the Gaza Strip if an abducted Israeli is harmed by his Palestinian captors.

Palestinians dug in behind walls and and embankments in the southern Gaza Strip today after Israel sent in troops and tanks.

An Israeli Cabinet minister today said that Hamas’ Syria-based leader, Khaled Mashaal, is a target for assassination for ordering the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert told a joint meeting of US Congress that Israel would be a “willing partner in peace” with the Palestinians, but would draw its own borders in the West Bank should it conclude it had no negotiating partner.

Israel will move ahead with plans to unilaterally draw its final borders by 2010 if Hamas does not recognise Israel and renounce violence within six months, a senior Israeli Cabinet minister said today.

Israel will give the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, and will unilaterally set its final borders with them by 2008 if they don’t, according to a close associate of prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Champion jockey Jamie Spencer is set to miss the final day of Chester’s May meeting on May 12 after picking up a one-day ban at Windsor yesterday.

After declaring victory in Israeli elections, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party said today it would quickly form a broad ruling coalition that will pull out of much of the West Bank and draw Israel’s borders by 2010.

Israel is considering barring Palestinian labourers and goods from entering Israeli territory after a Hamas-dominated parliament is sworn in this weekend, security officials said today.

Israel returned to politics today while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was improving, but still comatose in a hospital a week after a massive stroke.

A leading member of Israel’s Labour Party, Haim Ramon, today became the first politician in his faction to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new political list.

The Israeli Supreme Court today rejected an opinion by the International Court of Justice calling for the removal of Israel’s West Bank barrier, upholding the structure’s legality and also instructing the government to reroute a section to avoid encircling Palestinian villages.

A small heap of paper that survived the disintegration of doomed space shuttle Columbia, a 38-mile fall to Earth and two months of exposure to rain and sun in a Texas field, has been painstakingly restored by forensic scientists, yielding the flight diary and notes of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.

A WILL that left a fortune estimated at up to £10 million (€15m) to a lawyer’s second wife was declared invalid yesterday after a bitter legal battle by the children of his first marriage.

THE former wife of a wealthy English lawyer told a court yesterday she did not believe he would have made a will leaving nothing of his multi-million pound estate to her or her children.

Pieces of an Israeli astronaut’s diary, which plunged to earth with the stricken Columbia space shuttle, have been found in a field, it emerged today.

ISRAELIS yesterday mourned the death of their country’s first astronaut on the space shuttle Columbia with a weary sense of familiarity with dashed dreams.

One focus of attention in the investigation into the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia is possible damage to its protective thermal tiles on the left wing from a flying piece of debris during lift-off on January 16.

Space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames over Texas today, killing all seven astronauts just 16 minutes before they were supposed to land in Cape Canaveral, Florida.