Bantry House/ St Brendan’s Church

Declan Townsend is relishing the prospect of the aural delights on offer at this year’s West Cork Chamber Music Festival

The Islamic State’s staggering successes come at a cost. After all, it’s not cheap to wage war and manage territorial conquests whose population is now roughly the size of Austria’s.

President Barack Obama has moved to deepen the US military role in the volatile Middle East, vowing to wage an unrelenting counter-terrorism effort that will rely on air strikes to target Islamic State (IS) fighters in both Iraq and Syria.

Asian stocks nosedived today as the first ever downgrade of the US government’s credit rating jolted global financial markets, reinforcing fears that the world economy is weakening.

A man who became distraught as he was being briefed on his mother’s condition by a surgeon at Baltimore Hospital pulled a gun and shot and wounded the doctor, then killed his mother and himself in her room.

The Taliban is in a much stronger financial shape than al Qaida and relies on a wide range of criminal activities to pay for attacks on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, a US Treasury chief said.

ISRAELI divers yesterday found a red suitcase containing a small skull, bones and clothes, which police said may belong to a 4-year-old French girl whose grandfather has been jailed over the slaying.

Discreet Cat defied the bad vibes from the Godolphin camp to restore the smile to Frankie Dettori’s face as he ran out a six-length winner of the UAE Derby in Nad Al Sheba.

Bobby Hatfield, who with partner Bill Medley pioneered “blue-eyed soul” as the Righteous Brothers with hits like Unchained Melody and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, has died of undetermined causes at a hotel, his manager said. He was 63.