THE attempt of members of Athlone Town Council to remove an exhibit from a local gallery should not be dismissed as an isolated case of parochial philistinism and should alert the public to the dangers of the Government’s plan to merge the boards of the National Library and National Museum

Antonio Banderas will play Pablo Picasso in '33 Days'.

Jonathan deBurca Butler gets a whistle-stop taste of a confident, vibrant, lived-in city with the ‘swagger of a matador ‘, before moving on to devour delightful Toledo, Seville and Cordoba

Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica has been given the all-clear after fears it might be deteriorating.

THE very quick and safe release of reporter Rory Carroll in Iraq is to be welcomed. However, as in all such incidents, questions should be asked concerning any proposed methods that might have been used to gain his release.

ARTISTS took the pissoir this week, naming an upside-down urinal as the most influential modern art work of all time.

A New York bouncer was stabbed to death as he tried to enforce the city’s new ban on smoking in bars, police said today.

Non violent Basques held a rally yesterday amid fears over new limits on free speech following the banning of radical party Batasuna over alleged ties to ETA.

A powerful storm lashed eastern Argentina with heavy winds and rain, leaving four people dead.