STIFFENED by morning frosts and beaten into bitter submission by another ‘soft day’, it’s little wonder that the tropical look (this year dubbed Rio), has grabbed the market with such joyous abandon.

Mark Hayes continues his regular diary of a Corkman in LA with a survival guide to Lent and St Patrick’s Day in Hollywood – think Mardi Gras with green hats and leprechaun suits.

Hannibal Buress has no problem pointing to the elephant in the room, he tells Richard Fitzpatrick

Former US president George W Bush returned to New Orleans to praise the region’s recovery on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Police have released the name of a suspect in the shooting of garda Brian Hanrahan who was gunned down and robbed as he enjoyed a holiday in New Orleans.

The wife and mother of an Irish garda shot by an armed robber while on holiday in the US are on their way to his hospital bedside.

A young Garda is expected to undergo surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his back after he was shot twice in New Orelans.

This little boy has a very special wish list.

2FM DJ Colm Hayes joined a host of celebrities, models, would-be priests, petrol-heads and those just along for the rise at the annual fundraising Cannonball Run. Here is his weekend diary

1. Originally carnival was just a small street party to bring neighbours of the (then) deprived area of Notting Hill together.

SO What if the World Cup isn’t top of your priorities? Revelling in this summer’s Brazilian-inspired beauty turns the football thing into a whole different ball game...

Looking to take the little monsters away for Halloween? Pól Ó Conghaile has some frighteningly good fun for those travelling with or without the family.

It was the ensuing witch hunt, and not the events at Slane, that deserves condemnation, writes Sam Boland

It’s a strange sight indeed when a competition in which 32 women bid to represent Ireland on the world stage is almost overtaken by the male host’s comic quips and wardrobe changes.

The first ever televised Rose of Tralee engagement took place last night — and typical of the festival’s bizarre style, the happy couple have a broken leg and mechanical bull to thank for it.

US police have identified a 19-year-old as a suspect in the shooting of about 20 people during a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans.

If you fancy being paid €78,000 to be a ‘chief funster’ then you had better dust off your CV, as Australia is now hiring.

"You ask him….No, YOU ask him…No you - I'm morto, what if it's not him?! I'd be a FOOL then..."

THE Republican presidential candidates who are not Mitt Romney brought along modest hopes on their smiling, hand-shaking visits to New Hampshire’s polling places yesterday — just let me come in third place or so, most said, and survive to challenge the front-runner again in South Carolina and Florida.

NOTWITHSTANDING the one about the risen Lord, it is perhaps the greatest story ever told.

YESTERDAY, more than a billion Christians around the world marked the gravest observance on their calendar, Good Friday, the day Jesus died on the cross.

Elizabeth Taylor arrived fashionably late to her 75th birthday party decked out in diamonds and fur.

Rio de Janeiro ended this year’s carnival parade in style today, wowing a capacity crowd of 60,000 revellers with a samba act celebrating Brazil’s African roots.

The Sopranos star James Gandolfini braved the cold on Sunday to wow revellers at this year's Mardi Gras - wearing a bizarre costume.

Sopranos star James Gandolfini will reign as celebrity monarch Bacchus during the 2007 carnival season in New Orleans.

THIS recipe for Pumpkin Soup comes from The Festive Food of America by Martina Nicolls published by Kyle Cathie with wonderful photographs by Will Heap.

Irish rock band U2 headed the entertainment line-up at last night’s reopening of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

Sunshine and mild temperatures helped bring the crowds out yesterday as New Orleans’ first post-Katrina Mardi Gras neared, but a stroll through the French Quarter is a lot easier now than it was this time last year.

The first Mardi Gras parade since Hurricane Katrina marched through the French Quarter of New Orleans pulling carts with blue tarpaulins, effigies of Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco and floats with themes such as “Give Me That Mould Time Religion".

President George Bush travelled to a still-ravaged Gulf Coast after three months away, promising a post-hurricane building boom and encouraging other Americans to visit.

US President George W Bush said yesterday the Gulf Coast must be rebuilt with an eye toward wiping out the poverty and racial injustice plain to all in the suffering of the black and the poor in Hurricane Katrina's wake.

US President George Bush said today the Gulf Coast must be rebuilt with an eye toward wiping out the persistent poverty and racial injustice plain to all in the suffering of the black and the poor in Hurricane Katrina’s wake.

Probably the last thing a city inundated with water and filled with human misery needs is a parade, much less a Mardi Gras.

Rock was resplendent at the MTV Video Music Awards today, as the veteran punk group Green Day took home seven moonmen and newcomers The Killers and Fall Out Boy won one each.

Organisers of the annual Bloomsday event toasting James Joyce’s once-banned book, Ulysses have called for urgent Government funding to keep going.

ALMOST half a million people turned the streets of Dublin green yesterday as they cheered on the colourful St Patrick’s Day parade snaking through the city centre.

A male Camilla Parker Bowles impersonator and several transvestite nuns were among some of the thousands of people who paraded through Sydney’s streets today for the city’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival.

Preparations were under way tonight for one of Ireland’s oldest fairs – which will once again see “Elvis” crowned king.

A woman was killed and three people were wounded when gunfire erupted at a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade, US police said.

A GRAND total of 85 boats turned out for the opening race of the C.H. Marine Autumn League at the Royal Cork YC in Crosshaven where the skippers and crews just could not have had it any better.