Yes, that is a hedgehog in a wheelchair

NOTHING has been more important for the Coalition than getting a satisfactory deal on the promissory note issue.

HAS the Government been playing a desperate game of ‘call my bluff’ with the European Central Bank? What are the stakes? Us or them?

The Tánaiste is to push for a speedy resolution to Ireland's bank debt at a series of meetings with EU finance leaders today.

Madonna threatened to cancel a show after she caught an onlooker smoking during rehearsal.

There is a new group of nations in Latin America – the Pacific Alliance - uniting Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile.

Michael Jackson’s glittery gloves, spangled jackets and stage-worn costumes are going on a world tour before being sold to the highest bidder in December.

The dress worn by Amy Winehouse on the front of her 'Back To Black' album has sold for more than £40,000 at auction.

Courteney Cox and her estranged husband David Arquette have taken their daughter to Disney World.

President Barack Obama has said he wants to see Muammar Gaddafi step down from power in Libya but that US military action there is limited to protecting civilians and preventing a humanitarian crisis from taking place.

TWO strong earthquakes have rattled nerves in central Chile, but there are no reports of new damage to a region devastated by February’s big quake.

SCOTLAND struck late in each half to compound Ireland’s woes at the World Cup qualifiers in Santiago, Chile as a lack of killer instinct either end put paid to any remote chance of reaching the second biggest competition in the game.

The Vatican today tried to defuse growing anger over remarks by the pope's top aide that the paedophile priest scandal was caused by homosexuality and not the church's celibacy rule.

AUDREY O’FLYNN faces into the biggest test of her fledgling international career next month after she was yesterday named in Gene Muller’s 18-strong Ireland squad for the World Cup Qualifiers in Chile.

A 21-year moratorium on commercial whaling has been upheld by the International Whaling Commission meeting in the US.

Australian pop star Kylie Minogue has angrily denied reports she is having an affair with her married director friend Alexander Dahm.

Pop princess Kylie Minogue tonight denied having an affair with a married man - saying the “speculation” was “offensive”.

BACKBENCH Dáil deputies and senators from 17 different Oireachtas committees spent over €400,000 on 87 different trips abroad from January 2006 to January 2007, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

A fire swept through a small hotel in Santiago, Chile, early today leaving 10 foreign tourists dead, a Fire Department commander said.

Pacific Rim leaders pledged to shore up global security and push ahead with the World Trade Organisation’s negotiations on lowering global trade barriers at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum.

Russian president Vladimir Putin will tell US president George Bush that Moscow backs an international conference to help Iraqis decide the future of their country.

Despite a thriving economic partnership, political ties between Japan and China are at their lowest ebb in years.

A conversation between former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and Argentina’s foreign minister gave the military junta the impression it had American backing for its notorious “dirty war”, it has been claimed.

By Charlie Mulqueen MONKSTOWN’S Ada O’Sullivan is preparing for the biggest challenge of her golfing career.

Anthrax found in a letter mailed to Chile is not the same as the strain discovered in letters received in the US, investigators said.

Police have defused a letter bomb found near the main entrance to the heavily-guarded US Embassy in Santiago, Chile.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to break up a protest by scores of demonstrators protesting at the annual gathering of the Inter-American Development Bank in Santiago, Chile.