US President Barack Obama urged countries to tackle violent Islamist militancy around the world and rejected as “an ugly lie” suggestions that the West was at war with Islam.

UN HEAD MEANS AUSTRIA, THANKS AUSTRALIA

The "One Young World" Summit, which will be addressed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, gets underway in Dublin later today.

A senior Hamas official told supporters at a Gaza city rally that the war with Israel won’t be over until the group’s demands for a lifting of the Gaza blockade are met, insisting that its fighters would never give up their arms.

Having failed to achieve consensus on climate change policies in Copenhagen in 2009, the UN is set to try again, writes Michael Jacobs

Syria’s conflict was sparked by an act of brutality — the detention and torture of schoolchildren who spray- painted anti-government graffiti in a southern city. In the three years since, the civil war has evolved into one of the most savage conflicts in decades.

Dust — A Novel

South Africans have flocked to houses of worship for a national day of prayer and reflection to honour former president Nelson Mandela.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously last night to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, in a landmark decision aimed at taking poison gas off the battlefield in the escalating conflict.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said arming either side of the Syrian conflict would "not be helpful".

Syrian troops pushed into a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border yesterday, fighting house-to-house and bombing from the air.

Argentina and Britain have had another bitter clash at the United Nations over the Falkland Islands.

Donor countries have pledged over $1.5bn (€1.1bn) to aid Syrians stricken by civil war, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said after warning that the conflict had wrought a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

The UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has said Syria's war has reached "unprecedented levels of horror".

Burma democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be honoured in Washington and given the US Congress’ highest award, in the latest milestone in her remarkable journey from political prisoner to globetrotting stateswoman.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Office in Ireland has called on the Government to introduce a new single, asylum process like those which operate in other EU member states.

Russia faces mounting pressure to intervene in the spiralling Syria crisis today, as a top British diplomat urged Moscow to "get off the fence" or see a bloody civil war erupt and spread to other nations.

Ireland is donating €8m to the fight against global hunger, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said today.

The United Nations Security Council will vote today on a resolution authorising the deployment of the first wave of military observers to monitor a ceasefire between the Syrian government and opposition fighters.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has said increased attacks by government forces on Syrian cities violates the Security Council's demand for an end to hostilities.

More than a dozen people died in clashes across Syria yesterday, opposition activists said, as a UN Security Council call for an immediate end to the fighting fell on deaf ears.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has voiced his serious concern over the violence in Gaza and southern Israel in recent days which has resulted in a large number of fatalities within Gaza and has left many Palestinian and Israeli civilians injured.

Russia has urged the United Nations to send a special envoy to Syria to help co-ordinate security issues and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Syrian troops have shelled rebel-held neighbourhoods in the city of Homs, a day after the UN General Assembly condemned human rights violations by the regime.

Syrian troops attacked rebel strongholds in Deraa where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted nearly a year ago, and the UN chief said crimes against humanity had almost certainly been committed in Syria.

The United Nations Security Council failed again to take decisive action to stop the escalating violence in Syria as Russia and China blocked a resolution backing an Arab League plan for President Bashar Assad to step down.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a “surgical” military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

EAMON GILMORE has praised the progress made in the battle against under-nutrition in the developing world but warned that once the crisis ends, many people will remain vulnerable to “future shocks”.

Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore will address the UN General Assembly this week, setting out Ireland’s foreign policy priorities.

Turkey is preparing to challenge Israel’s blockade on Gaza at the International Court of Justice, turning up the tension between the once close allies.

Syrian forces attacked a central town and stormed parts of an eastern city, killing at least four people in fresh fighting as President Bashar Assad’s government struggled to crush a five-month-old uprising, activists said.

Residents barricaded themselves inside their homes, blanketing windows and pushing furniture against doors as Abidjan awaited the final battle between the two men who claim Ivory Coast’s presidency.

International air strikes on Libya have forced government troops to retreat, with rebels regaining control of the city of Ajdabiya.

Oil or regime change are not the motive for intervention in Libya, the UN resolutions could not be clearer, writes Gareth Evans

SYRIAN forces killed six people yesterday in an attack on protesters in a mosque complex in the southern city of Deraa, and later opened fire on hundreds of youths marching in solidarity, witnesses said.

THE Arab League got back behind international military strikes against Libya yesterday after comments by its leader had indicated divisions over the campaign against Muammar Gaddafi.

A FEROCIOUS tsunami unleashed by Japan’s biggest recorded earthquake slammed into its eastern coast yesterday, killing hundreds of people as it carried away ships, trains, cars and homes, and triggered widespread fires that burned out of control.

PRO-DEMOCRACY leader Aung San Suu Kyi reached out to Burma’s splintered opposition forces yesterday, as she addressed thousands of exuberant supporters following her release from years of house arrest.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on rival parties in Ivory Coast to accept results from the West African nation’s first election since civil war split the cocoa-producing country in half nearly a decade ago.

THE United Nations warned yesterday that up to 3.5 million children were at risk from water-borne diseases in Pakistan’s floods and said it was bracing for thousands of potential cholera cases.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged the world to speed up aid to Pakistan.

A case of the deadly, waterborne disease cholera has been confirmed in Pakistan’s flood-ravaged northwest, and aid workers expect it is not isolated, the UN said today.

UZBEKISTAN yesterday ordered its frontier closed to a mass exodus of refugees fleeing clashes between rival groups in Kyrgyzstan where government forces were accused of helping the slaughter of ethnic Uzbeks.

ISRAEL has decided to free hundreds of foreign activists detained following the commando attack on the aid flotilla which left at least nine activists dead.