Libya said today it has asked the United States for “clarifications” regarding the abduction in Tripoli of an al Qaida leader linked to the 1998 US Embassy bombings in East Africa, adding that Libyan nationals should be tried in their own country.

A man in China put on 70 items of his own clothing to avoid paying extra baggage charges at an airport.

GARDAÍ are preparing to launch an investigation into the alleged abuse and rape of children in Africa by Irish missionary priests.

The US said today it was considering its response to the hijack by Somali pirates of an American couple sailing the world with a yacht full of bibles.

A British couple held captive by Somali pirates woke up to their first day of freedom in more than a year today, as family and friends celebrated their release.

The confessed mastermind of bomb attacks in Uganda against World Cup football fans said he had hoped to kill many more Americans in the explosions in which 76 people, including one American, died last month.

When presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire, a Hutu, returned to Rwanda after a long absence she immediately visited a memorial to Tutsis killed in the 1994 genocide and asked why Hutus who also died were not remembered.

An Irish priest was murdered during a violent robbery at his home in Kenya, it was confirmed today.

TWO American journalists freed by North Korea returned home to the United States yesterday for a jubilant, emotional reunion with family members and friends they hadn’t seen in nearly five months.

Somalia's prime minister said he could go after pirates if other nations gave him the resources he needed.

The Obama administration has reversed years of US policy by calling for a treaty to cut mercury pollution, which it described as the world’s gravest chemical problem.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s main rebel leader today promised his support of a ceasefire and UN efforts to end the fighting.

Fears that fighting in eastern Congo will spread were raised today after it was revealed that Angolan troops joined government forces attacking rebels near the city of Goma.

A ceasefire called by Congo rebels appeared to be unravelling today.

Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo fought pro-government militiamen for a second day in the town of Kiwanja today, forcing thousands to flee.

International envoys converged on eastern Congo to help end some of the worst violence in years as thousands of anxious, hungry refugees struggled to get home amid a fragile ceasefire.

COMMANDING a budget of €20 million for some of Africa’s poorest citizens is no easy task.

Witnesses reported renewed air strikes aimed at Islamic militant targets in Somalia today, and a Somali official claimed that a senior al-Qaida figure had been killed.

A Catholic nun is beginning a 30-year jail sentence for helping militia kill hundreds of people hiding in a hospital during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, an official said today. Theophister Mukakibibi was sentenced by a court in Nairobi, Kenya, for helping Hutu militiamen to kill ethnic Tutsis seeking refuge from the slaughter in Butare hospital where she worked.

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche will attend a hastily convened meeting of a backbench committee on Monday to discuss criticisms of his efforts to update the electoral register.

British rockers Razorlight will headline a free climate change event in central London tomorrow.

With few exceptions, the world's big industrialised nations are struggling to meet the greenhouse gas reductions they committed to achieve in the embattled Kyoto pact on climate change.

Somalia’s virtually powerless government and an Islamic militia that has seized control of much of southern Somalia have signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army.

The Islamic militia that has seized control of Somalia’s capital said today the killing of a Swedish journalist was planned by a foreign enemy that wants to shatter weeks of relative peace in the Horn of Africa nation.

Backbench members of the Oireachtas spent over €500,000 on fact-finding missions to varied and exotic places on behalf of the Irish taxpayers during 2005, according to figures just released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Up to 11 million people across East Africa face starvation after the worst drought in 20 years hit the poverty-stricken region, a charity warned today.

Uganda’s military tribunal today ordered the main opposition leader to appear for trial tomorrow, although his lawyers have protested that prison officials have refused confidential access and insisted on reading all documents.

Nato has started a three-month airlift of African peacekeepers into Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, the alliance said today.

DISGRACED Olympic swimmer Michelle Smith is in the running for the accolade of Ireland’s greatest woman after being nominated in a radio competition, it emerged yesterday.

A bus crash in southwestern Uganda today killed at least 30 people and injured 21, Ugandan and Rwandan state radios reported.

A Tanzanian al-Qaida operative on the FBI list of most wanted terrorists has been handed over to US officials and flown out of Pakistan, a security official said today.

Sudanese government and rebel officials signed an agreement today promising to end the 21-year civil war in Sudan by the end of the year.

A new draft resolution circulated within the United Nations Security Council urges warring parties in southern Sudan and western Darfur province to reach peace agreements, promising international support and possible debt forgiveness.

Northern Uganda is the world’s biggest neglected humanitarian crisis, with 20,000 kidnapped children, many of them forced to serve as combatants, says the head of UN humanitarian affairs.

The bodies of two Pakistani government officials have been found dumped in a well after they were abducted two weeks ago at the start of a major counter-terrorism operation, during which the military claims it killed the top al-Qaida intelligence chief.

A car bomb that destroyed a Baghdad restaurant crowded with New Year’s Eve revellers killed eight people and wounded 35 including one Briton and two Americans, the US military said today.

A car bomb ripped through an elegant Baghdad restaurant crowded with diners at a New Year’s Eve party killing five Iraqis and wounding 35 others, including at least one Briton and two Americans.

DUBLIN people have more money to spend on holidays, leisure and savings than residents of almost any other EU city.

Four terrorist followers of Osama bin Laden convicted in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa have been sentenced to life without parole.