JULIAN BARNES transports us back to the former Soviet Union’s days of “endless terror” for his first novel since winning the Man Booker Prize in 2011. 

US senator John McCain penned a blistering column for a Russian news website, telling the Russian people their president, Vladimir Putin, is a dissent-quashing tyrant who “doesn’t believe in you”.

US Senator John McCain has insisted he is “more pro-Russian” than President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of corruption, repression and self-serving rule in an opinion piece for Pravda newspaper.

Two frostbitten elephants have escaped death after downing 10 litres of vodka to warm them up.

Coveted like a neighbour's wife, the Michael Moynihan End of Hurling Season Awards are back for 2012.

In the wake of the RTÉ Prime Time Investigates scandal, Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte waffled on about ‘the need to restore viewer confidence in current affairs and news broadcasting’.

FOR a telling barometer when it comes to the temperature in Cork over the last week, move beyond the obvious.

I’VE had better weeks. Of course there was always a trophy or two at the end of them.

THE examiner to the Thomas Read Group, operators of 18 of Dublin’s best known bars and restaurants, wants the High Court to approve his scheme of survival for the hostelries rather than that proposed by the group’s largest creditor, ACC Bank.

The High Court has granted orders for the winding up of four companies in the Thomas Read group on grounds they have no reasonable prospect of survival.

THE examiner appointed to a company which owns 21 of Dublin’s best known pubs and restaurants has been given High Court approval for “schemes of arrangement” for possible investment on the basis they will be separate but interdependent for each of the 14 companies which operate the hostelries.

ANOTHER week, another record to add to Chelsea’s ever expanding list — most consecutive away wins in top flight football.

Some of Dublin’s best known pubs and a major Irish fashion chain were fighting for survival tonight after securing legal action to stave off creditors.

Maybe it’s just because, in some irrational way, the Holocaust just feels worse than the Cultural Revolution or Stalin’s purges.

PAT BROSNAN (Irish Examiner, April 28) speculated that a British monarch may visit Ireland for the first time since 1911. Queen Elizabeth made her 13th official visit to Northern Ireland last year.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell must be the first politician ever in the history of the State to have issued an apology with a shelf life shorter than the lifespan of a mayfly, and that’s usually a single day.

FIRST Veteran: I served with John Kerry.

Corporate financier Paul Connolly has acquired the Thomas Read Group of public houses for more than €30m, from founders Hugh O’Regan and Martin Conroy.

A British man described by Russian media as a mercenary has been arrested trying to get out of Chechnya.

Satanic worship is reported to be rising in Russia.