Investors will this week be watching election results that could deal a blow to political parties who are key to reform efforts in the EU and could also fan instability in Ukraine.

Rocketing British business led the way in Europe’s slowly improving economy in July, according to surveys that suggested the eurozone’s lengthy recession may be nearing an end.

The Bank of England is expected to keep the City waiting on fresh measures to stimulate the economy when it holds its latest interest rate meeting tomorrow.

The Bank of England is expected to keep the City waiting on much-anticipated measures to lift the economy out of the doldrums when it holds its latest interest rate meeting on Thursday.

With the director Stephen Spielberg ending up in a bidding war with his wife for one of the items at the charity auction, it was no wonder the event raised more than €250,000 towards the building of a hospice in Wicklow — and they are still counting.

Dublin became a part of Hollywood yesterday when movie stars, directors, celebrities and fully paid-up members of the glitterati attended the European premiere of the new Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln in the city’s Savoy Cinema.

Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan will celebrate his 50th birthday tomorrow – an age he, along with many fans, never thought he would reach.

US Defence Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, familiar to global TV viewers for Iraq war briefings, has resigned.

US FORCES in Iraq grappled with looting and civil disorder, scattered gunfights, the murder of a Shi’ite religious leader and a suicide bomb attack that took American lives last night, one day after the euphoria that marked the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Some Iraqi Republican Guard units moved south from Baghdad toward US forces that are approaching the capital, Pentagon officials said today.

SADDAM Hussein's aides yesterday rubbished US reports that some of the president's family had fled abroad and said the fate of Saddam and his relatives remained tied to that of the Iraqi people.

Pentagon officials have complained bitterly about what they called “deadly deceptions” by Iraqi troops pretending to surrender to US forces and then firing on the Americans.

US President George Bush threatened Saddam Hussein with "the severest consequences" if he fails to disarm under a UN resolutions approved yesterday.

Two Kuwaitis shot at US Marines during war games on an island off the Gulf state today, killing one and wounding another in what the Kuwaiti government called a terrorist act. Fellow Marines shot dead the assailants.

The United States charged yesterday that Iraq was actively moving to conceal its weapons of mass destruction programs in anticipation of the return of UN arms inspectors.

The United States will seek to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein even if he lets UN weapons inspectors resume their work, a US official has said.

The US air assault on an Afghan village that residents say killed 44 civilians was part of a larger operation targeting Taliban fighters, Pentagon officials said.

Donald Rumsfeld has discussed the American role in forming and training a national Afghan army with the country's interim leader in Kabul.

US intelligence officers are preparing to interrogate 20 suspected al-Qaida fighters captured after they fled the Afghan mountains.

A top Pentagon official says the US has defeated the Taliban.

US forces have questioned an American found among Taliban fighters but have not yet decided what to do with him.

The Pentagon says US air strikes have killed senior leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Taliban forces in Afghanistan may be hiding in residential areas to shield themselves from air strikes, a senior US military officer said, as the Pentagon acknowledged that an errant 1,000lb bomb damaged an Afghan OAP centre.

United States Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld will travel to the Middle East for talks with political and military leaders in the region, spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said today.