Back in the day when I believed that politics could improve the lot of the common man, I used to be enthralled by the British general election, writes Paddy Heaney.

A man fatally shot a former colleague near the Empire State Building and then was killed by police in a gun battle that wounded nine bystanders outside one of New York’s most popular landmarks.

A senior US churchman visiting Dublin to examine how children are protected against paedophile priests today told parishioners he had not come to offer a quick fix.