When Richard Bruton, the communications minister, says Ireland must take robust steps to protect its national infrastructure from cyber attacks, he is not crying wolf.

The gunman who killed three people, injuring many more at a naval base in Florida, US, was a military pilot from Saudi Arabia training in the US.

With their trusty GoPros strapped to their head, Patrick Remington and two friends took a helicopter ride above Pensacola, Florida to go skydiving.

BRITAIN: Store giant Asda has unveiled what it describes as the UK’s first sweet red onion, promising to rid shoppers of tears and bad breath after eating.

America’s second biggest cigarette maker has vowed to fight a Florida jury verdict of $23.6bn (€17.4bn) in punitive damages in a case filed by the widow of a smoker who died of lung cancer.

Forget the small town boy schtick and dismiss that Forrest Gump’s younger brother act.

A deep freeze spread from the US midwest to the east and south, setting record low temperatures from Boston to Birmingham, and leaving 21 people dead.

Almost 18-years ago the whole nation was screaming as one of their own fought to become a world champion.

STANDING at the southern most point of the USA, in Key West Florida, the realisation set in that we had finally run out of road.

EXECUTIVES from major oil companies turned on BP last night and defended their own drilling practices during a US congressional hearing as they sought to stave off new government regulations in the wake of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The US government is ready to take over the handling of oil spill damage claims from BP if the British company doesn’t set up an “independent entity” to do it, a presidential spokesman said today.

BP’s top executive admitted today it was unprepared to fight a catastrophic deep water oil spill as engineers were forced yet again to rejig plans for their latest attempt to control the Gulf of Mexico blow-out.

The BP oil slick drifted closer to the coast of the Florida Panhandle today as a risky gambit to contain the leak by shearing off the well pipe ran into trouble a mile under the sea.

Robot submarines made another risky attempt to control the underwater Gulf oil leak today as the the surface pollution spread, closing in on Florida.

BP crews raced to protect the Gulf of Mexico coastline as a remote sub tried to shut off an underwater oil well gushing 42,000 gallons a day from the site of a wrecked drilling platform.

THE father of a Michigan man who believes he was snatched from his real parents in New York half a century ago called the speculation “a bunch of foolishness”.

Justin Gatlin is making another challenge against his drug suspension tomorrow in a bid to be allowed to compete at the USA Olympic trials in Eugene beginning next weekend.

Battle-scarred former prisoner of war John McCain declared he was the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination after a series of victories on Super Tuesday.

An American woman who as a little girl wrote to President John F Kennedy worried that bomb testing in the North Pole might kill Santa Claus has spoken to JFK’s daughter about her feelings at the time.

Argentina centre Martin Gaitan is resigned to missing the World Cup following the heart problems he suffered in Cardiff on Saturday.

Argentina back row forward Lucas Ostiglia is confident he will recover in time to play in this year’s World Cup.

Argentina have returned to Buenos Aires to resume their preparations for the World Cup after a 14-day training camp in the United States.

Eight former US guards at a state-run military style boot camp for juvenile offenders have been charged with aggravated manslaughter in the death of a teenage boy, who was roughed up by the guards during an altercation caught on videotape, a special prosecutor said today.

Republican control of Congress was on the line today in a US election coloured by voters’ dismay over the Iraq war and misbehaviour in Washington.

FLORIDA and the Caribbean islands were last night braced for the first hurricane of the season, although scientists believe that there will be no repeat of last year’s record-breaking devastation.

ILLEGAL immigrants and their allies gathered across America yesterday for marches, prayers and demonstrations on a national day of economic protest, boycotting work, school and shopping to show their importance to the country.

The crash site of a missing US Navy jet with four aviators aboard has been found, but none of the passenger’s survived the crash, US Air Force Special Operations Command spokesman Matt Durhan said today.

A Florida legislator wants the state to close its military-style boot camps for juvenile delinquents after a 14-year-old boy died just hours after entering one of the facilities.

US President George Bush, facing blistering criticism for his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, said today “the results are not acceptable” and pledged to bolster relief efforts with a personal trip to the Gulf Coast.

US President George Bush hopes his tour of Gulf Coast communities battered by Hurricane Katrina will boost the spirits of increasingly desperate storm victims and their tired rescuers.

Hurricane Dennis roared quickly through the coastal areas of Alabama and north-western Florida with a 120 mph bluster of blinding squalls and crashing waves, but shellshocked residents emerged to find far less damage than when Ivan took nearly the same path 10 months ago.

A 16-YEAR-OLD boy who lost a leg following the second shark attack in three days along the Florida Panhandle was in critical condition yesterday and doctors were hoping he hadn’t suffered any brain damage from the blood loss.

TIM DICUS was surfing when he heard the scream. He turned and saw a girl swimming as fast as she could - and another one face down in a bloody circle of water.

Pope John Paul II was responding well to treatment after being taken to a Rome hospital with breathing problems brought on by the flu, the Vatican said.

RELIEF workers fanned out across Florida and Alabama yesterday to hand out ice, water and meals to frustrated victims of Hurricane Ivan who faced another day digging through debris and waiting in lines as tempers began to flare.

HURRICANE Ivan extended its deadly march across the Southern United States yesterday, destroying homes, swamping streets and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas.

Hurricane Ivan slammed ashore in the US early today with winds of 130 mph, packing deadly tornadoes and a powerful punch of waves and rain that threatened to swamp communities from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.

Researchers say they have finally found a potent repellent to drive away sharks – a goal that has eluded scientists for decades.

A Florida activist with ties to anti-abortion violence again insisted he was innocent of molesting a 15-year-old girl from Northern Ireland as a judge sentenced him to more than 18 years in prison.

An associate of two men who murdered abortion doctors in the 1990s has gone on trial accused of molesting a teenager from Northern Ireland at a home he ran for troubled girls and women.

TESTIMONY will be obtained in Northern Ireland for a child abuse trial of a Florida-based anti-abortion protester , if Britain lets him travel to Belfast.

Florida

A former US church minister who murdered an abortion doctor and his bodyguard claiming he was trying to save the lives of unborn babies, was executed by lethal injection tonight.

An unrepentant Paul Hill said on the eve of his execution for the murder of an abortion doctor: “I expect a great reward in heaven.”

Christian and Jewish clergy in the US say a billboard that promotes vegetarianism by claiming “Jesus was the prince of peas” is historically inaccurate and sacrilegious.

Thousands of people have rallied in support of President George W Bush and US troops in a possible war against Iraq, turning their criticism to anti-war protesters and France’s opposition to military force.

A WOMAN who beat an Irish priest to death with a concrete block has been jailed for 40 years in Florida.

A woman who beat an Irish priest to death has been jailed for 40 years in Florida.

A jury in the US has convicted two young brothers of battering their sleeping father to death with a baseball bat in an unusual case in which a family friend was acquitted of the crime under a completely different prosecution theory.

The FBI had been hunting for two of the suicide hijackers who launched Tuesday's terror attacks for two weeks before they struck, it has been reported.