Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Senegalese troops are moving towards the Gambian border from two sides, witnesses confirmed, as pressure mounts for Gambia's president to step down.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh has declared a state of emergency, just two days before he is supposed to cede power after losing elections last month.

Gambia's ruler of more than 22 years has announced he no longer accepts defeat in the country's presidential election, reversing course a week after he conceded to his rival.

A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a school chaplain in the South East when she was a secondary school student yesterday told the High Court how she met him in his car one Christmas Eve and sexual activity took place.

Singer Taylor Swift has topped this year’s Forbes list of the world’s 100 highest paid celebrities, earning $170m (€153m) mainly thanks to her hugely successful 1989 world tour.

Europe has not, will not, and cannot stop the flow of humans seeking a better life. So they should deal with the situation humanely, legally and quickly, writes Robert Young.

Malaysia’s prime minister says he has ordered the navy and the coastguard to comb the sea for thousands of stranded migrants.

Around 40 migrants died in the Mediterranean on Sunday, according to survivors of the journey who arrived on the southern Italian island of Sicily, local Save the Children spokeswoman Giovanna Di Benedetto said.

Africa Cup of Nations: Ivory Coast 0 Ghana 0 (Ivory Coast win 9-8 on penalties).

Two men have been charged in the United States with conspiring to help overthrow the government in the small West African nation of The Gambia, federal prosecutors said.

Four people with fever considered at risk for ebola were being tested in Spain yesterday for the virus, including one who arrived on an Air France jet that was isolated at Madrid’s airport as a precaution, officials said.

Robert Plant has hinted his new solo album might be his final farewell.

A mother’s diet can permanently alter the functioning of her son or daughter’s genes — even before the child is conceived, a study shows.

ONE of world’s rarest mammals, the Mediterranean monk seal, has returned to the Adriatic coast.

Transition year students in Tipperary have taken the innovation world by storm following their hugely successful “Bicycles agus Bróga” campaign.

Gambia’s president has said that he wants to implement a policy change that would shift the country’s language from English to a local language.

Guangzhou Evergrande 0 Bayern Munich 3

The West African nation of The Gambia has announced it is withdrawing from the Commonwealth, saying it will “never be a member of any neo-colonial institution”.

TWO years ago, Ciaran Black, a retired school principal from Cork, made a life-changing decision.

Two weeks volunteering abroad is the norm, but the Mac Aonghusas stayed 10 months in Gambia, says Rita de Brun

Scientists say they have identified a link between strains of a malaria parasite, potentially paving the way for a life-saving vaccine.

THE cuckoo is in trouble.

Tens of thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports around the world at the weekend after Spanish airline Spanair went bust.

GOVERNMENT ministers from across the world are joining UN climate talks in South Africa this week as Europe pushes for action on a new legally-binding deal to tackle global warming.

NATO has vowed to keep up its relentless bombing campaign in Libya until Muammar Gaddafi steps down.

A LIMERICK school teacher is preparing for a 4,500-mile (about 7,250 kilometres) motorbike journey to Africa to help boost education facilities at three schools in Ghana.

Somalia is the most corrupt country in the world, followed by Afghanistan, Burma and Iraq, an international watchdog said today.

A radical Jamaican-born Muslim cleric whose teachings influenced one of the 2005 London transport system bombers will stay in a Kenyan prison until authorities find a way to send him home, Kenya’s immigration minister said.

A Jamaican-born Muslim cleric who was jailed in Britain for inciting murder and racial hatred will be allowed into the Caribbean island because he has committed no crimes there, the government said today.

A HAPPY New Year to all.

I WAS told there were crocs, but only after I’d been swimming.

THE first night in this tropical land of The Gambia in West Africa we ate in the company of hundreds of white butterflies.

PHILIPPA GREGORY is best known for The Other Boleyn Girl, her Tudor novel that spawned both a TV series and the 2008 film starring Scarlett Johansson.

The British system for regulating financial markets is "completely broken" with basic safeguards "shockingly absent", the UK's former chief prosecutor warned today.

Tens of thousands of communities in developing countries are using the Irish experience of credit unions to lift themselves out of poverty, it was revealed today.

Tens of thousands of communities in developing countries are using the experience of Irish credit unions to lift themselves out of poverty, it was revealed today.

DERVAL O’ROURKE finished last of the seven competitors in her Golden League 100m hurdles race at the Bislett Games in Oslo last night, in a time of 13.19 secs.

DIARMUID, our youngest son, returned from the jungles of Bolivia last month. He brought home a guest. Some odd characters stay with us from time to time, but the Bolivian visitor, who is still here, is the strangest to date.

THE young wife of a Dublin-born businessman 50 years her senior admitted in court in her native Gambia yesterday that she had murdered him.

A woman is being held by African police in connection with the murder of an Irish-born business man.