The developers of Ireland's tallest building have been asked to justify the height of the 140 metre, 34-storey tower they have proposed for Cork's Custom House Quay.

Three people were injured after a fire broke out in Trump Tower's heating and air conditioning system, New York City fire chiefs have said.

Wind has wreaked havoc with wildfires threatening two crown jewels of the US National Park Service

Latest: The gunman who opened fire at a New York City hospital, killing at least one person, was a doctor who used to work there, a police official said.

Latest: Police say one of the children wounded in the San Bernardino school shooting in southern California has died of his wounds.

This story has firemen AND ducklings.

This guy in Phoenix, Arizona, was walking down the street the other day when he noticed a duck quacking insistently nearby.

Fifteen-year-old Darby Risner fell victim to her own prank when she tried to scare her friends with a Barney prop and ended up stuck inside the head of the big purple dinosaur.

ENGLAND: A Conservative standing for re-election has dismissed as “nonsense” claims that he attempted to sway potential voters with cake.

A pilot has died after his small twin-engine cargo plane crashed into a bungalow in Chicago.

Boxing: Boxing history will be made in Cork on Thursday night when the New York Fire Department enter the ring in Ireland for the first time.

Brazil was in mourning today after an overpass collapsed in Belo Horizonte, reportedly killing two people.

Firefighters scouring the scene of a gas blast in New York City which flattened two apartment buildings have found a seventh body.

Eye witnesses claim a train that derailed in New York yesterday, killing four people, was travelling faster than normal.

Police say a suspect is now in custody following the shooting at Los Angeles International Airport.

Police and paramedics have surrounded a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport because of a reported shooting.

New York City police say five people, including a toddler, are dead after a stabbing at a Brooklyn residence.

Three children were injured after a police gun went off during an anti-drug programme at a Southern California school.

Three children have been treated for minor injuries after a police officer’s gun accidentally fired during a school safety demonstration in California.

The New York Fire Department has said that it has been called to a report of a crane collapse in the city’s Queens borough.

All residents of an apartment complex in Virginia which was hit by a US Navy jet have miraculously survived, it has been confirmed.

The captain of the cruise ship that capsized off Tuscany made an unauthorized divertion from the ship’s computer-programmed course, his company said today.

The mother of a New York fireman killed in the 9/11 terror attacks said he was very proud of his Irish roots after the family was presented with the first Certificate of Irish Heritage.

THE killing of Osama bin Laden, a man who was America’s face of evil for nearly a decade, left Christians, Jews and Muslims relieved, proud or even jubilant.

Rock-and-roll legend Chuck Berry felt ill and was checked out by ambulance medics before a show, the Chicago Fire Department said.

An elderly US couple missing for three weeks were found alive buried under mounds of rubbish in their crammed apartment.

A Staten Island, New York ferry with a history of accidents, including a fatal wreck in 2003, malfunctioned as it approached its terminal and smashed into a pier with a jolt that tossed passengers to the deck and hurt as many as 37 people.

Firefighters battling wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes in Southern California were today aided by calmer winds.

Los Angeles appeared surrounded by flames today, with three wildfires consuming spacious mansions and tiny mobile homes at the edges where bone-dry wilderness meets burgeoning development.

New York City fire officials said five people – including three children – died after fire swept through a Manhattan apartment building today.

A grizzly bear which appeared in a recent Will Ferrell film killed a 39-year-old trainer with a bite to his neck and had to be subdued with pepper spray.

A tiger escaped from its pen at the San Francisco Zoo today, killing one man and critically injuring two others before police shot it dead, authorities said.

A window cleaner was killed and his brother seriously injured when their scaffolding fell 40 storeys from a skyscraper in the US today.

Forest fires continued to burn in parts of southern Greece while the other main fronts of a series of massive fires have been extinguished, Greece’s fire service said today.

Promises of aid poured in from Greece and abroad as firefighters managed to douse most of the massive fires that ravaged the Greek countryside for a week and killed 64 people.

A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl is recovering in a hospital after her grandfather was found allegedly choking her during an exorcism.

Up to 53 people were injured, including 14 firefighters, in a blaze at an apartment building in New York, authorities in the US said today.

Self-proclaimed Spider-Man Alain Robert – a French "urban climber" – was arrested as he attempted to scale Malaysia’s 88-storey Petronas Twin Towers with his bare hands for the second time in 10 years.

An ice storm wiped away the traditional green stripe painted on Fifth Avenue, New York, but it could not keep away thousands of St Patrick’s Day celebrants from the city’s parade today.

A fire swept through a small hotel in Santiago, Chile, early today leaving 10 foreign tourists dead, a Fire Department commander said.

Two people were killed when a small business jet crashed while taking off from Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles today, federal officials said.

AUTHORITIES were investigating the source of a mysterious gas-like odour that stretched across a large part of Manhattan yesterday that prompted officials to suspend some commuter rail services to New York.

Authorities were investigating the source of a mysterious gas-like odour today that stretched across a large part of Manhattan, including the Rockefeller Centre.

Two people were killed and about 60 others injured today when two underground trains collided during morning rush hour in a central Rome station.

Fire swept through a third-floor apartment in Chicago earlier today, killing six children and injuring their mother and three siblings, authorities said.

FRANTIC callers trapped on the upper floors of the burning World Trade Center sought help from emergency operators who were unable to offer much more than words of encouragement, according to recordings of emergency phone calls from September 11, 2001, released yesterday.

The voices of US fire-fighters who went to rescue people from the burning World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 hold clues about what happened after planes struck the towers – but until now, many went unheard.

Firefighters freed an injured construction worker trapped for hours under tons of concrete yesterday after part of the old convention centre in Phoenix, Arizona, abruptly collapsed during demolition work.

A section of Chicago’s transit system was shut down after a derailment and fire forced commuters to evacuate a smoke-filled subway line.

Fire officials in New York are investigating whether a suicidal doctor who was going through a difficult divorce caused an explosion that flattened a four-storey building in the city today.