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West Ham are “committed to retaining Avram Grant as manager” after weekend reports had linked Martin O’Neill with his job.
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Brian Cowen said he believes he has the numbers to survive the vote The Irish prime minister is due to face a confidence vote over his leadership of the ruling Fianna Fail party.
On Sunday, Brian Cowen called the vote while indicating his wish to lead the party into a spring general election.
It followed two days of consultation with party colleagues with some backbenchers demanding his resignation.
Mr Cowen has faced scrutiny over a meeting he held with the head of Anglo Irish Bank shortly before he announced a multi-billion euro bank guarantee.
“One of the unwritten rules of politics is that a prime minister can survive with just one senior cabinet minister against him – but two is potentially fatal”
Mark Simpson BBC Ireland Correspondent
One of those believed to be a rival for the top job, foreign minister Micheal Martin, has already pledged to vote against Mr Cowen in the secret ballot.
Finance minister Brian Lenihan, whose support for Mr Cowen is seen as crucial to his survival, has refused to be drawn on what his position will be.
Speaking on RTE on Monday evening, Mr Cowen said his party faced a fight ahead of the election and needed a fighter at its head.
He added that he was convinced that he had the numbers necessary to pass the motion and that he had acted honourably in seeking to the put the question of his leadership to the party.
Mr Martin, whose offer to resign was rejected by Mr Cowen, said he had challenged the prime minister because the future of the party was at stake.
Potentially fatal
BBC Ireland correspondent Mark Simpson said that Mr Cowen’s supporters remain confident of a comfortable victory.
“That could change, however, if the finance minister Brian Lenihan joins the ranks of the rebels and voices his opposition to Mr Cowen.
“One of the unwritten rules of politics is that a prime minister can survive with just one senior cabinet minister against him – but two is potentially fatal.
“Mr Lenihan’s refusal to clarify his position on Monday evening may well have led to a sleepless night for Mr Cowen.”
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A judge rules a Cornwall hotel which refused a double room to a gay couple from Bristol acted unlawfully.
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Inflation is being driven by air transport, fuel, utilities and food costs UK inflation jumped in December with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rising to 3.7%, up from 3.3% in November.
Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation – which includes mortgage interest payments – rose to 4.8% from 4.7%.
The rise will put further pressure on the Bank of England to lift interest rates to curb rising inflation.
The recent VAT rise from 17.5% to 20% could further fuel inflation, which has now remained above the 2% target by one percentage point or more for 13 months.
Steve Bell, chief economist at the GLC asset management firm, said the inflation rise meant the chances of an interest rate rise had “increased substantially”.
The Office for National Statistics said the biggest drivers of inflation were air transport, fuel, utility bills and food costs.
Fuel prices increased at their fastest annual rate since July, while the cost of food showed its biggest annual rise since May 2009.
This inflation rise has come as quite a shock.
The jump in the annual rate from 3.3% to 3.7% has come even before the VAT increase took effect.
The pressure on consumer prices from surging international commodity costs is all too clear.
Transport, including air fares and fuel for motorists, rose by the largest monthly amount on record.
Food prices saw the largest ever increase for the month of December.
This is a real headache for the Bank of England as it debates whether to raise interest rates or to stick with its belief that the impact of volatile commodity prices will fall away next year.
“The question is whether the peak is 4.1, or is it higher?” said Alan Clarke, economist at BNP Paribas.
He added: “It confirms my suspicion that the first rate hike will come this year; the only question is how soon.
“Our call is August, but clearly there is a risk it comes as soon as May.”
The Bank of England’s governor, Mervyn King, had to write four letters to the chancellor last year as a result of rising inflation.
But with the new government having announced the biggest round of budget cuts since World War II, the Bank still expects the resulting slowdown in spending to bring inflation down over the next two years.
The latest increase was more than economists had expected and above the Bank of England’s own forecasts.
And core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as energy and food prices, rose from 1.9% to 2.9%.
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The French government is accused by the Socialist opposition of a “deafening silence” over events in Tunisia.
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The trial of a former Rwandan mayor accused of ordering the massacres of Tutsis during the country’s 1994 genocide opens in Germany in the first such case in the country.
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A suicide bomber has killed at least 50 people outside a police recruitment centre in Tikrit, in central Iraq, officials say.
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The euro rises sharply, despite indications there will be no imminent agreement to scale up the eurozone rescue fund.
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The King’s Speech is leading the way in the nominations for this year’s Baftas with 14 nods, followed by ballet thriller Black Swan, with 12.
Tom Hooper’s film about King George VI is up for best film and director while Colin Firth is up for best actor.
Co-stars Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter are both up for best supporting actor awards.
Pete Postlethwaite, who died a fortnight ago, is nominated in the best supporting actor category for The Town.
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Mr Obama needs Mr Hu’s co-operation on climate change, North Korea, and Iran Chinese President Hu Jintao is to begin a four-day visit to the US, which will include the first state dinner there for a Chinese leader in 13 years.
Both countries hope to unveil a raft of commercial and trade deals when Mr Hu meets President Barack Obama.
After the state dinner at the White House on Wednesday, Mr Hu will go from Washington to Chicago for two days.
On Monday, some US senators pressed for Congress to penalise Beijing for “manipulating” its currency.
They said it was important to punish China if it did not allow the yuan to rise in value rather than manage its exchange rate, making Chinese products cheaper in the US and raising the price of US goods in China.
“There’s no bigger step we can take to preserve the American dream and promote job creation, particularly in the manufacturing sector… than to confront China’s manipulation of its currency,” Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said.
Mr Hu had earlier said the yuan was not undervalued, and that China had adopted a “managed floating exchange rate regime” determined by the balance of international payments and supply and demand.
He also questioned the role of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and criticised US monetary policy, saying that by keeping interest rates low, the Federal Reserve was devaluing the dollar and creating inflation elsewhere.
Members of Congress are also focusing on China’s human rights record. Human rights activists, pro-Tibet campaigners, Uighurs, Taiwanese and others are also planning to hold protests during Mr Hu’s visit.
US and Chinese officials met on Monday at the White House to discuss commercial and trade issues, including energy deals. President Hu is due to join them, along with officials from the commerce ministry, on Tuesday.
The US is also encouraging China to buy tens of billions of dollars of aircraft from Boeing, car parts, agricultural goods and beef.
A Chinese trade mission has already signed six deals with US companies in Houston worth $600m (£376m), according to Chinese state media reports.
Trade between the US and China is worth $400bn, up from $100m 30 years ago, when the US formalised relations with the communist state.
The Obama administration also needs Beijing’s co-operation on climate change, North Korea, and Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.
The White House is to throw a lavish black-tie reception for President Hu on Wednesday evening, before which he will be greeted on arrival by Mr Obama and the First Lady, review troops, and attend talks.
Mr Hu is said to have felt insulted when former President George W Bush opted for lunch rather than a state dinner during his last visit in 2006.
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Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi said the new government would work “towards democracy”
Tunisia’s new unity government is beginning work amid lingering tensions on the streets following the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
PM Mohammed Ghannouchi is among several old faces remaining in the new government, sparking fears that the protests could continue.
But the BBC’s Wyre Davies says pledges to allow political and media freedoms have placated many protesters.
The government now admits that 78 people died in the recent violence.
Riot police remain on the streets of the capital Tunis, our correspondent reports.
He says the task now will be to move quickly to begin the constitutional reforms and preparation for free and fair elections which Tunisians have been promised.
He says another urgent challenge is to begin to return economic stability to the country – the crisis is estimated to have cost it some $2bn (£1.3bn).
Unveiling his new administration on Monday, Mr Ghannouchi said the foreign, interior and defence ministers would retain their jobs, along with himself.
But he named three prominent opposition figures to key posts in the government.
Ahmed Ibrahim, leader of the opposition Ettajdid party, becomes minister of higher education, while Mustafa Ben Jaafar, of the Union of Freedom and Labour, is to serve as health minister.
Najib Chebbie, founder of the Progressive Democratic Party, was named as Tunisia’s new development minister.
Mr Ghannouchi said all political parties would now be allowed to operate in Tunisia.
Political prisoners would be freed and the media would be permitted “total freedom”, he added.
“We have decided to free all the people imprisoned for their ideas, their beliefs or for having expressed dissenting opinions,” the AFP news agency reported him as saying.
The announcement of the new government included a pledge to abolish Tunisia’s information ministry and to create a state where the media had “total freedom”.
But correspondents say it remains to be seen whether the inclusion of several veteran ministers in senior positions will be acceptable to those protesting on the streets.
Unrest in Tunisia grew over several weeks, with widespread protests over high unemployment and high food prices pitching demonstrators against Tunisia’s police and military.
After dozens of deaths, President Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday.
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Mr Turabi, a former ally of the president, has been detained on numerous occasions The Sudanese Islamist opposition leader, Hassan al-Turabi, has been arrested by security forces at his home, his party has said.
His secretary, Awad Babiker, told the Reuters news agency that armed offices had arrived in several vehicles.
The security forces also arrested a member of Mr Turabi’s staff after he clashed with them, Mr Babiker said.
On Sunday, Mr Turabi warned of a “popular uprising” if the government did not reverse new austerity measures.
Mr Turabi, a former ally of President Omar al-Bashir, has been detained several times since he set up his Popular National Congress party.
He spent a month and a half in detention in 2010 after he repeated an allegation that April’s presidential election had been rigged.
On Monday, Mr Turabi warned that an uprising as seen in Tunisia last week was “likely” amid public anger over poverty, a lack of political reform, and fears over the likely secession of Southern Sudan.
“Sudan is not a small country like Tunisia, but it is exposed to a risk of chaos worse than Somalia”
Hassan al-Turabi Popular National Congress
“This country has known popular uprisings before,” he told the AFP news agency, referring to revolts in Sudan in 1964 and 1985. “What happened in Tunisia is a reminder. This is likely to happen in Sudan.”
“If it doesn’t, then there will be a lot of bloodshed. The whole country is armed. In the towns it will be a popular uprising, but in Darfur, and in Kordofan as well, they have weapons.”
Mr Turabi has been accused of links to rebels in Darfur – something that he has denied.
“Sudan is not a small country like Tunisia, but it is exposed to a risk of chaos worse than Somalia,” he said.
On Sunday, opposition parties, including the Popular National Congress, called a joint news conference to congratulate Tunisians and demand an “end to the totalitarian regime” in Khartoum.
They also threatened to take to the streets if the president did not sack the finance minister and reverse a recent decision to raise prices on a range of basic goods.
Sudan is suffering an economic crisis, with a current account deficit and currency devaluation driving up inflation.
“All the opposition parties have been talking to the government again and again to try and get them to decentralise, to liberalise, to democratise and promote freedom of expression. But they don’t allow it,” Mr Turabi said.
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A man and a woman have been rescued from two separate house fires in Counties Londonderry and Antrim.
The woman in her 30s, was found unconscious in the upstairs bedroom of a house at Ardfoyle, Brandywell.
Firefighters carried her to safety after extinguishing a blaze in the living room. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
In Whitehead, a man was saved from a fire at Adelaide Avenue which broke out at 0100 GMT on Tuesday.
He was taken to hospital suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.
At the Londonderry fire, Jonathan Tate from the Fire Service said six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were involved in the rescue.
“The Fire Service forced entry to the rear of the property. Six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the fire in the living room,” he said.
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Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal is named Europe’s 2012 Ryder Cup captain, taking over from Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie.
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The husband of US singer Etta James can use some of her savings to pay for her health care, a judge rules.
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