In the pioneering days of aviation, Ireland was the point of departure and arrival for all transatlantic air traffic. And although planes no longer refuel at Shannon, we are still prominent in the industry. Ryanair is the largest short haul airline in Europe and we are major players in airport retail and aircraft leasing, says Eoghan Corry

Have you ever wondered which country has the largest amount of gold reserves or how Ireland's youth unemployment rate compares with the rest of the world?

Burma’s president has pardoned 56 political prisoners, moving forward with his pledge to release all those jailed for opposing the government by the end of the year.

President Barack Obama is cancelling a trip to Asia next week because of the US government shutdown.

The US military stands ready to strike Syria at once if president Barack Obama gives the order, the country’s defence secretary Chuck Hagel has said.

Venezuela has joined Ecuador in saying it would consider an asylum request from the fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Talks between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese leaders have failed to narrow gaps on how to end the crisis in Syria and resolve Beijing's territorial disputes with its smaller neighbours over the South China Sea.

The Philippines foreign secretary says he and the Chinese ambassador have agreed to resolve diplomatically a stand-off involving a Philippine warship and two Chinese surveillance vessels in a disputed area of the South China Sea.

Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has met Thailand’s prime minister in her first ever audience with a head of government from the region, her political party said.

STATE oil group Petrovietnam and its partners may buy $1.5 billion in Vietnamese oil assets in the contentious South China Sea from ConocoPhillips, according to Petrovietnam’s chief executive.

Eight years ago Theresa Tinggal discovered she was illegally adopted. Now aged 56, Theresa, like many others, is still fighting for information about the circumstances of her birth. She tells Conall Ó Fátharta about her quest to find her true identity and the obstacles that remain in her way.

THE US and eight other Pacific Rim nations aim to forge a free-trade pact before President Barack Obama hosts an APEC summit in Hawaii in a year, Chile’s president said yesterday.

JUST when it appeared the Irish Seniors Open would fall by the wayside after the withdrawal of AIB’s long-standing sponsorship, support for the event at Carton House next weekend came from an unusual quarter.

Foreign countries including Saudi Arabia gave millions to former President Bill Clinton’s charity at a time when his wife Hillary was serving her first year as secretary of state, records released today show.

IT has been another good year on the European Seniors Tour for Ireland’s Denis O’Sullivan.

POLICE divers were searching Brunei’s rivers for a missing man and a four-year-old boy snatched by crocodiles in separate attacks.

Police divers were searching Brunei’s rivers for a missing man and a four-year-old boy snatched by crocodiles in separate attacks.

South Korea imposed heavy security today for a summit with south-east Asian leaders following North Korean nuclear and missile tests that frayed nerves across the region.

Rumours that Hillary Clinton was poised to become the next US secretary of state strengthened today with reports her husband and former president was actively helping her selection.

Countries across Asia banned Chinese dairy products today amid a widening panic over contaminated milk.

CHRISTENED by screen legend Sophia Loren at the weekend, an elegant cruise ship made her first stop in Cobh yesterday on her maiden voyage.

The race for control of Virgin Radio took a new twist today after it was reported that Malaysia’s largest media company had entered the fray.

A British soldier killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan was named by the Ministry of Defence today as Major Alexis Roberts, serving with 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles.

Music legend Michael Jackson has moved into a luxury $60m (€44m) property in Las Vegas.

Superstar Michael Jackson is set to receive a $10m (€7.44m) paycheque - just for attending the birthday party of a Brunei royal.

DOZENS of endangered orang-utans have been driven from their jungle habitat because of forest-clearing fires raging across Indonesia, campaigners warned yesterday.

The Islamic world’s biggest bloc today demanded that the United Nations implement an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and investigate what it called flagrant human rights violations by Israel.

The Islamic world’s biggest bloc today demanded an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and a role for Muslims in a UN peacekeeping force, stressing that a slow end to Israel’s warfare could drown chances for lasting peace.

PALESTINIAN Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar returned from a trip to the Muslim world yesterday with a suitcase bulging with cash, a sign of Hamas’s desperation to replenish government coffers drained by a Western boycott.

Brunei’s energy minister has warned people of this cradle-to-grave welfare state to curb their “extravagant lifestyle” of wasting fuel and electricity, saying the country’s dwindling oil reserves will not last forever.

A Brunei government agency says it has successfully forced the sultan’s disgraced brother to disclose details of his bank accounts in a bid to end a multi-billion-dollar fraud scandal.

Southeast Asian nations pressed Myanmar’s (Burma’s) generals to get serious about democracy as they opened a summit today aiming for broader Asian integration – an uphill task as shown by a feud raging between China and Japan.

Australia would consider shutting its borders if bird flu triggered a lethal human pandemic in the region, Australia’s foreign minister said today as disaster co-ordinators from Pacific rim countries gathered in Brisbane to discuss ways to head off such a crisis.

Southeast Asian agriculture ministers have agreed to launch a three-year plan next year aimed at stamping out the menace of bird flu in the region – a move they hope will win enough international aid to halt the disease before it becomes a catastrophic global epidemic with the potential to kill millions.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of oil-rich, jungle-covered Brunei has married a former Malaysian TV journalist, making her the second wife of one of the world’s richest men.

MUSLIM leaders and Saudi princes bade farewell to King Fahd yesterday, saying prayers in a jammed mosque and then burying him in an unmarked desert grave in keeping with the kingdom’s austere version of Islam.

Australia’s foreign minister is expected to announce next week that Australia will sign a non-aggression pact with its south-east Asian neighbours when he attends an ASEAN security forum, an analyst said today.

Jenson Button believes his extra fitness training will give him the edge in this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, the hottest and hardest race on the calendar.

Everton goalkeeper Nigel Martyn has today signed a one-year extension to his contract at Goodison Park.

BILL KENWRIGHT says the past year battling Everton’s financial turmoil has been the worst of his life.

SOUTHEAST Asian nations and China signed an accord yesterday to create the world’s biggest free trade area by removing tariffs for their two billion people by decade’s end — a key step in their vision of a trade bloc to rival Europe and North America.

Southeast Asian leaders finalised visionary pacts with China and India at their summit today, hoping for a pan-Asian trade bloc to rival Europe and the US, even as the region grapples with terrorism and epidemics such as bird flu.