THE United Nation’s top envoy in Iraq was one of 20 people killed yesterday after a suicide bomber in a truck set off a massive explosion that tore through the organisation’s headquarters in Baghdad.

WHAT a difference a year makes. Tomorrow afternoon, Alan Brogan will line out for Dublin, not exactly a senior member of the team, but certainly as a young man with an inordinate amount of responsibility on his young shoulders.

Five cargo ships carrying military supplies for United States troops in the Gulf entered the Suez Canal today on their way to join the American build-up for a possible war on Iraq, marine officials said.