His great uncle was JFK and his grandfather was the former US Attorney General but Congressman Joseph Patrick III is relying on more than just his name to put emigrant issues on the map. He talks to Robert Mulhern.

One in 25 motorists are still not paying the toll on the country’s busiest motorway.

Australia’s ambassador met Indonesian government officials who summoned him following reports the Australian Embassy in Jakarta is a hub for Washington’s secret electronic data collection programme.

Pope: I have faith but I’m no Tarzan

A strong but deep earthquake has struck off eastern Indonesia, causing panic among residents in East Timor, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage and there was no danger of a tsunami.

As well as enjoying more tranquil days around the Med, Louise Roseingrave has had plenty of adventures on the high seas — from drifting perilously close to shipping lanes, to dodging the attentions of a seedy sea-captain.

Detectives are treating the death of an East Timorese man in a suspected stabbing incident in Dungannon as murder.

Expenditure on Ireland’s embassies and diplomatic missions abroad fell by just 0.3% last year, despite the closure of three offices including the controversial decision to shut the embassy to The Vatican.

An undersea earthquake has rocked eastern Indonesia, causing panic among residents in neighbouring East Timor. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Tributes have been paid to members of the Cork-based 4th Infantry Battalion, which was stood down yesterday.

Women who survived a barbaric procedure in Irish maternity hospitals are hoping their stories will go global following the release of a documentary.

UN peacekeepers are on track to leave East Timor by the year's end, but the international community will remain engaged in one of the world's youngest nations through other channels.

Government spending on embassies and consulate offices fell by almost 3% last year, achieving savings of €1.6m for the exchequer.

Former US president Bill Clinton’s speech to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night served as a high-energy validation of Barack Obama’s policies — and may also have started setting the stage for another White House bid by his wife, Hillary.

Bill Clinton took centre stage at the Democratic National Convention as President Barack Obama’s nomination is placed before a party hoping that the last president to preside over sustained growth can help propel him to re-election in a sputtering economy.

Saturnina da Silva doesn’t have a name for her baby boy yet, born just 12 hours before Saturday’s parliamentary election in the tropical half-island nation.

A decade after independence and with UN mission coming to an end, East Timor goes to the polls, writes Simon Roughneen

The days of chauffeur-driven cars and Ferrero Rocher chocolate delights are over for Ireland’s ambassadors.

A senior army officer who coordinated security for UN agencies in war-torn Syria has assumed command of the Defence Force’s 1st Southern Brigade.

The Vatican has been told to relax its rules on embassy requirements if it wants Ireland to retain a presence at the Holy See.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has denied that Labour has a secular agenda which drove the decision to close the Vatican embassy.

NO matter how many ways that you try to adapt candlelight it can’t be made into a light bulb.

IRELAND’S decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See’s prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive, sources have said.

The Australian government has blamed the rig operator for the country’s worst oil spill.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao said today that the resignation of his deputy, whose party threatened to withdraw from the ruling coalition, will not lead to the collapse of East Timor's government.

One of East Timor’s deputy prime ministers said he resigned after prime minister Xanana Gusmao publicly called him a “liar” for his outspoken critiques of the government’s failure to tackle corruption and improve people’s lives.

A woman stabbed to death in Co Tyrone was today named as Luisa Cabral Pereira Silva.

A report into a huge oil spill off Australia strikingly similar to the Gulf Coast one was handed to the government today.

A charity has been set up in honour of an Irish United Nations worker killed in the Haitian earthquake.

The world's most diverse marine region is under serious threat and needs urgent protection, environment watchdogs said today.

A top American official at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan has temporarily left the country following a disagreement with his boss over how to respond to the massive allegations of vote fraud in the August 20 presidential election, officials said today.

Today marks the 10th year anniversary of independence in Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor.

The home of the North's former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan was targeted in a sectarian attack today.

KERRY-BASED financial services firm Fexco has bought a majority shareholding in the New Zealand-based group, Federal Pacific for a multi-million euro sum.

There is a crucial difference between talking to terrorists who are on the crest of wave, who believe they have momentum on their side, and those who have been made to believe their strategic commitment to violence is hindering their political aims

AROUND 100 million people risk losing their homes and livelihoods unless drastic steps are taken to protect southeast Asia’s coral reefs, which could be wiped out in coming decades because of climate change, a report said yesterday.

Irish people can be proud of their role in fighting global poverty after an international report praised the State’s work in developing countries, it was claimed today.

A MINISTERIAL trip on the Government jet which cost taxpayers a whopping €287,000 needs to be investigated, opposition parties last night insisted.

A NUMBER of the world’s best-known pioneers for peace and justice have demanded that the UN carry out a full-scale investigation into allegations of war crimes during the latest Gaza war.

Australia plans to withdraw 100 troops from East Timor by early 2009 because the security situation has improved since trouble erupted in the tiny Pacific nation two years ago, Australia’s defence minister said today.

Finland’s ex-president Martti Ahtisaari received the Nobel Peace Prize today for his efforts in places as diverse as East Timor and the Balkans.

I DO not share Maurice O’Connell’s historically and politically flawed analysis (Letters, September 22) that the inability of British and Irish Lisbon ‘no-noes’ to understand the European project is due in part to the fact that they did not share, “even in a grandfather’s memories”, the types of atrocities experienced in Europe, including Auschwitz, the Katyn Woods, Lidice, or Oradour — the French town destroyed (by mistake?) by the Nazis, or jails in Franco’s Spain or the Colonels’ Greece.

EMMET Dunphy’s flawed analysis of the situation in Georgia (Letters, August 13), and his consequent petty attempts to take a swipe at anti-war activists, should not pass unchallenged.

Britain today narrowly defeated Spain to win a place on the UN Human Rights Council.