Chris Donoghue co-presents Newstalk Breakfast from 7am to 10am. He is an ambassador for First Fortnight, a charity aimed at challenging mental health stigma, and will speak at Proclamation, a music and talk event on New Year’s Day in Christ Church Cathedral, as part of First Fortnight festival in association with NYF Dublin. NYF Dublin’s three-day citywide festival spans the new year period from today until January 1. See www.NYFDublin.com 

A few females are plying their trade in male-dominated sectors hit by recession, says Sue Leonard

A group of adults was sentenced to jail and floggings today for having an all-night party in Saudi Arabia.

The Serious Fraud Office’s decision to drop its investigation into alleged bribery and corruption involving arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia was overturned by the High Court in the UK today.

Iran said last night it had detained two suspected al-Qaida members who entered the country illegally from Iraq, state television reported.

Nearly three million Muslims from around the world, chanting “I am here, Lord” and raising their hands to heaven, marched through a desert valley outside Mecca in Saudi Arabia today on the first day of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

Suicide bombers who targeted the world’s largest oil processing centre were thwarted by guards who fired on their cars, exploding both vehicles and killing the attackers.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for efforts to reduce oil prices but said the world’s biggest exporter Saudi Arabia was doing what it could to rein in prices.

The vast majority of suicide attackers in Iraq are thought to be foreigners - mostly Saudis and other Gulf Arabs – and the trend has become more pronounced this year with North Africans also streaming in to carry out deadly missions, US and Iraqi officials say.

A confidant of Osama bin Laden, seen on a videotape with the al-Qaida chief as he talked about the September 11 terror attacks, has surrendered to Saudi diplomats in Iran and has been flown to the Saudi capital.

Film-maker Michael Moore had evidence that Iraqi prisoners were being abused by US soldiers long before shocking pictures of the scandal emerged, he said today.

Twenty-eight pages blacked out of the US congressional probe into the September 11 attacks – detailing what help Saudi Arabia may have given the hijackers – has caused more waves than the information made public.

SAUDI ARABIAN princes paid Osama bin Laden and the Taliban $200 million to spare targets in the oil-rich Gulf state, according to court papers.