Brent crude hit an 11-year low of $36.20 this week, in part because Opec has ceased to function.

Skies full of drones, easier security checks for passengers, and global airlines are the future of the aviation industry according to a new strategy put forward by the European Commission.

Why are the Gulf states not taking refugees? The vast majority of them are Muslim. Europe does not owe these people anything.

Worldwide there are now nearly 60 million refugees and people displaced by conflict and violence fleeing for their lives – most of them towards Europe.

A nuclear deal may have been signed by Iran and Western powers but the regional powerplay is far from resolved, writes Volker Perthes

Ryanair is to use its next big Boeing order to compete with the likes of Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways on routes from Ireland and Britain to the Gulf States and northern Africa.

The EU’s milk quota regime has entered its final year, offering a once in a generation opportunity to the sector, writes Simon Coveney.

The recommendations of the Indecon Report surrounding the governance and fundraising of horse racing in Ireland will be acted on before the end of the year, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Simon Coveney.

Bord Bia is to open an office in Dubai, it announced yesterday, as part of its week-long trade mission in the Middle East.

Irish Food and Drink exports to the Middle East are set to double by 2020 and are expected to exceed €500,000,000.

Ireland’s agri-food and equine sectors are set for a major boost in the Gulf States of Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Ah, beware the kindness of friends… Planning my journey to Paris three years ago for the game which would go down in infamy as the one touched by the ‘Hand Of Gaul’, I cheerfully followed the advice of a colleague and booked into what sounded like a nice, friendly, conveniently located hotel on the left bank of the Seine.

EMIRATES Airlines has entered the Irish market promising to be a major employer and boost to the local tourism industry in the coming years.

A short-term stay visa waiver programme, allowing visitors from 16 countries who clear immigration in the UK come to Ireland without needing further clearance, has been launched.

GOLD extended its record-breaking run yesterday to touch an all-time high above $1,500, driven by a long list of supportive factors including worries about European and US government debt levels, inflation and turmoil in the Middle East.

EMBATTLED Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, under intense pressure to quit, was slapped with an EU visa ban while ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was also hit by travel restrictions.

Jack Lynch believed China needed and wanted friends in the West but was not willing to make allies.

The Government has announced plans which it says can create up to 300,000 jobs in the next five years.

THERE’S a moment every summer holiday when the brain snaps off and, like Tennyson’s Lotos Eaters, leaves you isolated in “a land in which it always seems afternoon... where all things always seem the same.”

Tar balls found on a Texas beach were confirmed as the first evidence that gushing crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon well had reached all the Gulf states.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward today handed over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to an American executive brought up in one of the states affected by the disaster.

HOW do you solve a problem like Iran? As Richard Haas, president of America’s Council on Foreign Relations, and once the US envoy to Northern Ireland states, “what happens in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East”.

Forty new jobs are to be created over the coming three years at Butterfield Fulcrum in Dublin.

CONCEIVED and delivered by a low-key Irish developer with sites scattered around Ireland, Rosegreen Studfarm is a bit away from his usual pattern of mixed-use commercial developments.

RECENTLY I saw a report announcing that the Tánaiste was going to lead an Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. I was disgusted that Ireland would trade with Saudi Arabia which allows fathers to marry off their child daughters to old men and which cuts off hands for theft and beheads more than 100 people a year.

Around 30 firms from the beleaguered construction sector will join a major Government trade mission to the Gulf this week to boost business links.

An extra 22 jobs are being created at a Co Down tunnelling company, it was revealed today.

Work has stopped on building Europe’s tallest building after developers said their lofty ambitions had been hit by the global financial crisis, a Russian news agency said today.

Hillary Clinton apologised to black voters on the day that a prominent supporter quit her campaign team after ill-judged remarks about rival candidate Barack Obama.

THE announcement by Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan of a decision by South Africa to reopen its market to Irish beef has been welcomed by Meat Industry Ireland but the industry says that it is awaiting details on the trade conditions applying to the reopening.

Coastal Long Island in the US could see some of its worst flooding in 14 years when a hard-blowing nor'easter begins whipping through New York today, officials said.

The Taoiseach meets Saudi Arabian royal King Abdullah today as part of his five-day Gulf States trade mission.

US-led military action in Iraq has been a catastrophic failure and important lessons must now be learned, Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told Middle East politicians tonight.

Sweden has invited 60 countries and aid agencies to a donors’ conference aimed at helping Lebanon rebuild homes, roads and lives.

IT might be a bit extreme, but are there some mad Celtic Tiger types out there prepared to pay €2 million for the sake of a Ryder Cup ticket?

US President George Bush is asking Congress for as much as $50bn (€40.2bn) in immediate aid for the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, and the White House indicated today more money would be needed eventually.

US National Guard troops from Louisiana and other Gulf states won’t be pulled out of Iraq ahead of schedule, despite the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, the US command said today.

IN his letter headlined ‘Simplistic nonsense on immigration’ (Irish Examiner, January 20), Colin McGovern accuses me of being inaccurate.

IT incensed me to read Richard Ashton's letter headlined 'Asylum seekers don't have right of residence' (Irish Examiner, January 11).