Votes were being counted in Ireland Saturday after a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty -- a controversial agreement, already rejected once by Irish citizens, which lays down rules for governing an expanded European Union. Results of the referendum were expected later in the day, with both the government and main opposition parties saying they were optimistic of a "yes" response. The European Union has made assurances to Ireland that the Lisbon Treaty will not affect the country's ...

Germans went to the polls Sunday in the face of threatening videos from al Qaeda and the Taliban warning them not to vote for leaders who want to keep the country's troops in Afghanistan. Security was tightened at airports and train stations, and authorities on Saturday banned all flights over the Oktoberfest beer festival until it ends on October 4. The annual event attracts about 6 million people. Chancellor Angela Merkel is fighting for another four-year term amid concerns about ...

After losing her beloved Maltipoo Daisy to a coyote attack, Jessica Simpson may be at the lowest point of her life, friends fear. "Daisy was her baby," one of them told PEOPLE. "It's going to put her into a tailspin. It will put her into the worst place ever." Daisy was snatched away by a coyote before Simpson's very eyes in Los Angeles last week, and, despite Simpson's refusal to quit searching and offer of a reward, no sign has ...

Environmental campaigners say they have dealt a blow to the proposed expansion of London's Heathrow Airport by buying up land earmarked for the construction of a controversial third runway. Greenpeace said the purchase of a field next to the airport threw a "massive spanner" into the plans, which were being considered by the UK government on Tuesday morning amid speculation that a decision to authorize the expansion may be delayed. The group, which says a third runway will create ...

Are white Americans turning against Barack Obama because of the color of his skin? After weeks of growing opposition and the largest protest of his eight-month presidency, some of his supporters think so. "An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man," former president Jimmy Carter said this week. Many Americans have been shocked by protestors' posters depicting the president in the crudely stereotyped ...

Ireland have made one change on the bench for Saturday's Six Nations match against Scotland at Murrayfield from the team that beat England 43-13. After weeks of growing opposition and the largest protest of his eight-month presidency, some of his supporters think so. "An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man," former president Jimmy Carter said this week. Many Americans have been shocked ...

Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" has spawned a raft of imitators, most of which pale in comparison; the latest, "The Lost Symbol," is by Brown himself. Once again, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to the scene of a gruesome attack, joins forces with an attractive and erudite love interest, and speeds around a world capital chasing clues, solving puzzles, and risking his life while dropping cocktail parties' worth of scholarly minutiae. Even the setting, though new, will ...

From the stage, Deborah Johns is the angry conscience of the tea party movement. "Question everything your government is doing," she tells a crowd of about 100 from the bus's stage in the parking lot of the Winners casino in Winnemucca, Nevada. Under a setting sun on the steps of the state capitol in Little Rock, Arkansas, Johns says: "Our men and women took an oath when they put on the uniform to defend and protect this country ...

Now comes the hard part. Handed a sweeping mandate for change, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) begins the formidable task of delivering on a laundry list of promises intended to lift the country after its worst recession since World War II. Voters -- skeptical, pessimistic and impatient -- are unlikely to give the party, which has never held office, much time to make good. Japan is witnessing historic highs in unemployment and experiencing ramifications like homelessness for the first ...

For almost 50 years, Sen. Ted Kennedy pushed unsuccessfully for legislation that would reform the health care system and ensure coverage for every American. Ironically, his death might bring about a change of tactics that would help reach the goal he was unable to achieve in life, one veteran political analyst says. "Kennedy's departure may in fact increase the chances that we get a more sweeping health care bill," American Enterprise Institute analyst Norman Ornstein recently told CNN. As Congress ...