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Rep. Peter King on Wednesday said the Republican Party cannot allow Ted Cruz and Rand Paul to take over following House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s defeat. “We can’t allow Eric’s defeat last night allow the Ted Cruzes and the Rand Pauls to take over the party, or their disciples to take over the party,” the moderate New York Republican said on MSNBC.

Sinn Féin has emerged as the biggest party in Northern Ireland following the local government elections—but the DUP has claimed the greater number of council seats. The republican party claimed 24.1% of all first preference votes with the DUP on 23.1%. Both parties, however, saw their share of the vote slip with the DUP down by 4.1% and Sinn Féin marginally down by 0.7%. …

Irish voters on Friday (23 May) gave a strong signal to the government that they have tired of austerity, reaching out to alternative parties in the local elections and set to do the same for the EU vote. According to an exit poll by state broadcaster RTE on Saturday morning, the governing center-right Fine Gael party is set to take 22 percent of the vote, down seven percentage points from the last EU vote in 2009. […] Sinn Féin, which sits with the leftist GUE group in the European Parliament, is set to elect three of the country’s 11 seats,...

Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio get thrown around a lot as possible GOP presidential candidates for 2016. One prominent Republican who does not get mentioned much in that context is Rep. Peter King (R-NY). But during one of his frequent interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Friday, King said he is seriously considering making a run at the nomination, if only to prevent those younger, more right-wing candidates from becoming president. Asked by Blitzer about his 2016 plans, King said he’s “certainly looking at” the possibility, which will include a trip to New Hampshire next month. He...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)New York Rep. Peter King is stepping up his attacks on 2016 GOP hopefuls Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul as he builds on his burgeoning presidential campaign with planned trips to Iowa and South Carolina. “I don’t want the Republican Party taken over isolationists such as Rand Paul, or people like Ted Cruz who want to shut the government down,” he said while visiting Harvard University’s Institute of Politics. “I want there to be an alternative voice which I feel is in the tradition of Eisenhower, of Reagan, and you know, traditional Republicans who believe in strong national defense...

A sister of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney has said she was threatened at her home in the Short Strand area. Paula McCartney said a woman told her she would be put out of the area. The family also said they had to stop handing out leaflets about a vigil in her brother's memory when they were confronted by about a dozen people. Mr McCartney, 33, was stabbed after a row in a Belfast bar. The IRA has been blamed for the murder and interference with evidence and witnesses. The family said Mr McCartney's partner, Bridgeen Hagans, was also told...

Police in Northern Ireland have been given more time to question Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. ... An initial 48-hour deadline to either charge or release him was due to expire at 20:00 BST on Friday, but the police successfully applied for more time to question him. ...

The European Left's candidate for the European Commission presidency, Alexis Tsipras, Friday called for the immediate release of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams who is been held for questioning in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. Tsipras called the arrest a "politically inflammatory act against democracy".

Martin McGuinness blamed the “dark side” of policing for Gerry Adams’ detention during the election campaign and insisted his leader could have been questioned without being arrested. He said the questioning centered on books Mr. Adams had written and what others said about him—those “maliciously and vehemently” hostile to the peace process. …

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams arrested

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) was on “America’s News Headquarters” today, where he discussed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. In his speech, Paul said that the NSA monitors all phone calls. […] “I think it’s an ignorant strategy which shows that he’s unfit to be a leader of a party. To say that the NSA is monitoring people’s phone calls—the NSA does not listen to anyone’s phone calls, cannot record the conversations of anyone’s phone call, unless there’s a court order, and that can only be obtained after [they’ve] shown direct contact with a terrorist...

'Liam Adams, a brother of Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, has been jailed for 16 years for raping and abusing his daughter. Adams' sentence is subject to an automatic 50% remission. Adams, 58, from Bernagh Drive, Belfast, was convicted of 10 offences in October, including rape and gross indecency, against his daughter, Áine, who waived her right to anonymity. She welcomed the sentence but said it was "still much too little, too late".'

Northern Ireland’s Lord Mayor of Belfast offered an enthusiastic endorsement of a certain Irish-American mayoral candidate Thursday morning during a visit to Gracie Mansion. “We think that every city needs an Irish mayor. And New York has had a series of wonderful mayors and we think it would be wonderful in the days ahead, in the short time ahead, if New York had an Irish-American mayor again,” Lord Mayor Máirtin Ó Muilleoir told Politicker this morning, as he posed for photographs with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn by his side. While Mr. Ó Muilleoir didn’t mention...

Six police officers were injured and seven people were arrested during overnight clashes in east Belfast, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said. Rioting broke out following the Protestant “mini Twelfth” parade on Friday, a force spokeswoman said. Police vehicles were damaged and missiles were thrown at officers trying to quell the “significant disorder” in the Castlereagh Street and Albertbridge Road areas of the city. Officers used rubber bullets and a water cannon to try to disperse the crowds, finally bringing calm to the area in the early hours of Saturday. Six officers were hurt when youths threw by blocks...

Dear Gerry Today is the first day on which you can claim office space and parliamentary allowances. You’ll see from last month’s debate in the Commons that I did much to support the proposition that you and your colleagues are given offices in the Commons. Together with the allowances, this should net about half a million pounds for Sinn Fein. This tidy little sum will go some way to making up the shortfall in funding from gullible Americans who were outraged by the IRA activities in Colombia organised by your friend, let’s just call him bungling Brian. You know yourself ...

The shock of Ireland's decision to seek a bailout, after weeks of denying it needed one, has proved too much for the fragile government. The junior member of the coalition, the Green Party, stunned Cowen and his Fianna Fail party by announcing Monday they want parliament dissolved in January for an early election. A Green withdrawal would destroy Cowen's three-vote parliamentary majority. Green Party leader John Gormley said his party would support Cowen through the Dec. 7 vote on the 2011 budget as well as the related four-year plan and the expected flow of the bailout money in coming weeks....

A GROUP OF ABOUT 100 protestors – many of them carrying Sinn Féin banners – forced their way through the gates of government buildings earlier this afternoon, following a protest against the government’s handling of the economy. The group – led by Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh - were calling for the immediate resignation of the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, following yesterday’s announcement that Ireland had been forced to seek emergency bailout funding from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Think the IRA has stepped off the world stage? Their role is closer to that of ringleader. One of America’s most influential terrorist enemies traces its lineage back some thirty years — and it isn’t a Muslim organization.In splinter groups like the Continuity IRA and more recently the Real IRA, Irish terrorists have positioned themselves at the center of a network connecting revolutionary FARC rebels in Colombia, Hezbollah in the Middle East, al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Taliban forces in Afghanistan currently fighting and killing American troops. The IRA and PFLP have trained together and coordinated attacks, weapons smuggling, and other...

Murphy acquitted over Omagh bombing COLM MURPHY walked free from the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday after he was cleared at a retrial of a conspiracy charge in relation to the 1998 Omagh bombing which killed 29 people and injured more than 300. Mr Murphy said after being acquitted of the charge: “I am glad to see it’s all over. Find out who was behind it – MI5 agents setting people up.” The three-judge non-jury court ruled that there was no evidence upon which the court could have convicted Mr Murphy after it ruled that all the evidence of...

Kendall Myers, 72, who appeared in federal court in Washington on Wednesday charged with spying for Havana for nearly 30 years, had a fascination with Northern Ireland. The Daily Telegraph has established that as well as seeking the envoy's post, which carried the rank of ambassador, Mr Myers travelled to the British Isles and met British and Irish officials, senior Northern Ireland politicians and intelligence officers. .... "Anything this guy could have found from his European responsibilities he might have funnelled to the Cubans for them to sell off," said John Bolton, a former top State Department official in the...