French riot police have fired tear gas at striking train workers who hurled bottles and blocked traffic in anger over a bill to reform the state-run railway system.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has offered to resign because of an increasingly bitter dispute with President Mahmoud Abbas over the extent of his authority, officials said today.

Banks in Cyprus will open today for the first time in more than a week – with tough restrictions to prevent people from draining their accounts.

A young man is fighting for his life because the HSE has refused to fund a trip to New York for a “one last chance” treatment.

THIS SUMMER’S London 2012 Olympic Games poses the greatest operational and security challenge the city has faced since the Second World War.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the leadership race of his Likud Party over his ultra-nationalist rival, hours after his government approved new incentives to entice people to move to West Bank settlements.

Gardaí in Clare are appealing for witnesses to an armed bank robbery in which more than €8,000 was stolen.

A BRAVE security guard prevented armed robbers from stealing a large sum of cash from a bank in Co Cork.

The West Bank Palestinian leadership formally decided to press ahead with efforts in September to win United Nations recognition of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem

THE music of Mozart will fill the London Underground today as classical buskers take their instruments into stations.

A former Israeli soldier has come under fire for posting photos on Facebook of herself smiling beside bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners.

Israel is coming under increasing US pressure to scrap the east Jerusalem building project which has sparked the most serious diplomatic feud in years.

Seven people are being questioned today over a €100,000 robbery in which a cash-in-transit worker’s terrified mother and young niece were held hostage.

Israel is poised to approve more West Bank settlement building today after key leaders defied US pressure and backed the controversial enclaves.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Iran’s hardline leaders of fomenting divisions in the Arab world, promoting terrorism, posing threats to Israel and Europe, and seeking to “intimidate as far as they think their voice can reach”.

Northern Rock will this week reveal details of the pay-off for its former boss and millions paid in advisory fees when it posts results for the first time since the bank’s crisis, it was reported today.

THE militant Islamic Jihad group in Gaza fired more than a dozen rockets at southern Israel early yesterday after Israeli undercover forces killed one of its West Bank leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has instructed the army to reduce airstrikes and raids into the Gaza Strip in response to a recent drop in rocket fire from the territory.

Israeli troops killed the West Bank leader of the Islamic Jihad military wing in a raid this morning, the group said.

PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was never seriously threatened by an assassination plot and promised to do his best to rein in West Bank militants.

a meeting with the Palestinian leader today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed releasing some prisoners, lifting some West Bank roadblocks and establishing a team to work on a broad agreement in advance of a US-sponsored peace conference in November.

Palestinian government employees loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas stood in long lines outside banks in Hamas-ruled Gaza today to collect their first full salaries in 15 months.

On its first day of full rule in Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas today announced that it was granting amnesty to senior Fatah leaders, signalling that it is seeking conciliation with the defeated forces of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

GLEN and Rebekah Markham are a bit taken aback by the worldwide publicity surrounding their child, scheduled to arrive by Caesarean section today.

The Israeli army arrested 16 Palestinian militants today in raids across the West Bank, despite a decision by the military to scale back operations in order to bolster a fragile truce in the Gaza Strip.

Army Radio has quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying he has backed off from his support for a West Bank pull-back.

Israeli troops killed two Islamic Jihad militants today, including the man the group described as the leader of its militant wing in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Israel began tightening security a day before its crucial election, as acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert explained his plan to withdraw unilaterally from large parts of the West Bank, and opponents attacked his idea and his party.

I HAVE given up on the letters you and others often publish from Dr Sean Marlow.

Thousands of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities shouting “Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!” a day after three deadly hotel bombings that killed at least 59 people.

ISRAELI troops yesterday fired missiles at the Gaza Strip and raided a West Bank town, killing two Islamic Jihad militants and arresting one of the group’s top leaders in retaliation for a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis.

A major Palestinian militant group today declared it would fire no more rockets during Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, after a deadly barrage inadvertently killed a three-year-old Palestinian boy.

OFFICIALS have put huge efforts into drawing up emergency plans to deal with a mass terror strike on British soil.

Israel’s Cabinet today voted down a proposal to delay the summer’s Gaza Strip withdrawal by six months, while the first settler families voluntarily moved out of their Gaza and West Bank homes.

AMNESTY International yesterday called on Israel to take action against West Bank settlers who it says have been poisoning Palestinians’ livestock.

Opponents of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan for a pullout from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank made last-ditch efforts today to rally support for a vote that could halt the withdrawal.

THE venality and depravity of the Green fascist scourge that is Sinn Féin/IRA knows no bounds.

In the wake of the Northern Bank raid and the murder of Robert McCartney, there seemed to be no limit to the criminality of the IRA. But some very positive developments have given rise to grounds for new hope that the Good Friday Agreement may yet be saved.

The Israeli government is planning to build more than 6,000 new homes in the West Bank this year and to legitimise 120 illegal outposts, a newspaper reported today.

IN RECENT weeks rumour had it that in West Belfast you could buy a £20 Northern Bank note for £1.

Armed raiders have struck at a bank in Co Longford this afternoon.

Israel has agreed to remove major roadblocks as part of its withdrawal from five West Bank towns in coming weeks – the most tangible improvement in the lives of ordinary Palestinians as a result of a fledgling truce.

Sinn Féin was accused today of thinking republicans were above the law and didn’t have to live by the same rules as everyone else.

There will be more trouble ahead for Sinn Fein with a report from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) expected to blame the IRA for the pre-Christmas robbery of the Northern Bank in Belfast.