Former President Mary Robinson has been charged with overseeing global efforts to tackle climate change.

A mysterious “magic island” has appeared out of nowhere in radar images of a hydrocarbon sea on Saturn’s giant moon, Titan.

Preparations in Rwanda for the commemorations for the 20th anniversary of the genocide were overshadowed by a major spat with France amid renewed allegations that Paris was complicit in the killings.

Italy’s plea for help from fellow member states of the European Union to deal with the arrival of refugees to its southern shores must not go unheeded.

Mary Robinson has been appointed as UN Special Envoy for the troubled Great Lakes region of Africa.

Superstorm Sandy disrupted the US presidential race as President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney both cancelled campaign events.

Hurricane Sandy is threatening 50 million people on America's heavily-populated east coast today and forecasters warned that New York could bear the brunt of the one-of-a-kind superstorm.

Close to 400,000 people were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the north-eastern US as cities and towns were braced for the onslaught of a “superstorm” threatening some 60m people along the country’s most heavily-populated corridor.

Tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the north eastern United States today as big cities and small towns across the US Northeast braced for the onslaught of a superstorm threatening some 60 million people along the most heavily populated corridor in the nation.

Hurricane Sandy headed north from the Caribbean – where it left nearly 60 dead - to threaten the eastern US today with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow as millions were warned to get out of its path.

A string of violent storms demolished small towns in Indiana and cut off rural communities in Kentucky as an early-season tornado outbreak killed at least 37 people in four states.

Powerful storms stretching from the US Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes in the north wrecked two small towns and killed at least 28 people as the system tore roofs off schools and homes and damaged a maximum-security prison. It was the second deadly tornado outbreak this week.

Violent weather including possible tornadoes roared across the US state of Alabama today, injuring dozens of people and killing at least two.

Pope Benedict XVI issued pleas for peace to reign across the world during his traditional Christmas address today, a call marred by Muslim extremists who attacked Christian churches in Nigeria, including bombing a Catholic Mass.

TORNADOES and thunderstorms have carved a trail of destruction across the southern US, killing over 220 people in one of the country’s worst weather disasters in years, officials said.

A MASSIVE winter storm dumped snow, ice and sleet across a huge swathe of the US yesterday, grounding thousands of flights, and bringing a wintry blast to 100 million people, or a third of the country.

US authorities rescued more than 100 motorists in Indiana who were trapped in their cars in biting temperatures as snowstorms over the weekend were blamed for at least 15 deaths.

More than 130 fisherman stranded for up to four hours on a miles-wide ice floe that broke away from Lake Erie’s shoreline were plucked to safety.

Two explorers conducting underwater surveys of Lake Ontario have uncovered an aquatic mystery – a rare 19th-century schooner sitting upright 500ft (150m) below the surface.

The US presidential rivals have remained silent on some very serious issues, says Conor Ryan.

An official with Air Canada’s regional carrier Jazz says the airline is removing life vests from all its planes to save weight and fuel.

A rising tide of late mortgage payments and home foreclosures poses considerable dangers to the US economy, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned anew as he urged Congress to take additional steps to alleviate the problems.

IT WAS near the spot where the intrepid Stanley finally found Dr Livingstone, but it would be wrong to presume the Taoiseach had similar good fortune locating his tax clearance certificate.

A winter storm has killed at least 11 people in the central US, with heavy snow and howling wind making roads hazardous and leaving thousands of homes and businesses without electricity.

More than 100,000 homes and businesses were still without power across two US states and parts of Canada today as the impact of a winter storm lingered more than a week after it brought chaos to the area.

UN human rights chief Louise Arbour warned yesterday that unpunished human rights violations — including “pandemic” sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo — are keeping central Africa on the brink of another major conflict.

The Pan African Parliament is to debate the worsening crisis in Zimbabwe after a motion was tabled calling for an investigation into the arrest and detention of opposition activists in the southern African country.

People in the Democratic Republic of Congo have finished voting in an election that marks the climax of its four-year postwar transition.

Pope Benedict XVI condemned terrorism as a “moral perversion” and demanded religious freedom around the globe in an annual speech today to Vatican-based diplomats outlining the Vatican’s foreign policy priorities.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is today meeting with 11 African leaders in Tanzania to push for lasting peace in central Africa, where the past decade has seen millions die in wars, rebellions and a genocide.

VOTERS trying to beat the US election day rush turned out early in such large numbers in many precincts that they created their own crowds, standing in long lines that snaked down the street, sometimes before the polling places even opened.

Voters trying to beat the rush turned out early to cast ballots in many precincts as the US presidential election day opened.

RUSTY, rusty state. The woods of rural Ohio are bursting with autumnal hues of rust.

AMERICA may be the oldest modern democracy, but wisdom has not come with experience. The way it elects its president is dangerously antiquated.

The rapid spread of alien species through oceans and seas is playing havoc with the world’s delicate environment, experts will warn this week.

Belgium is dispatching a special envoy to central Africa in an attempt to calm rising tension in the region following the weekend massacre of at least 160 refugees at a UN camp in Burundi.

A winter storm packing fierce winds, frigid temperatures and snow pounded large parts of US north-east and mid-west today, causing travel woes as well as dangerous

US officials received a warning in 1995 that Islamic militants were plotting to attack an American nuclear site and targets in Britain - but did not pass on the information to the agency overseeing nuclear facilities or to the plants themselves, it has emerged.