IT IS only when the lights go out at the Pepsi convention centre that the real stars shine.

More than four in 10 US voters are still undecided as to who they will choose in November's presidential election, polls showed today.

Kate McCann today denied criticising the owners of the holiday resort where her daughter Madeleine went missing.

Madeleine McCann's friends and family may have destroyed vital evidence in the first few hours after her abduction, according to Portuguese police.

USUALLY there’s some free time then for a few stories or games with the twins before heading out.

As the search for missing Madeleine McCann entered its sixth day today, efforts to home in on her abductor stepped up a gear.

Today the manager at the Mark Warner resort, John Hill, confirmed the British girl missing from the resort in Portugal as Madeleine McCann and her parents as Gerry and Katie.

RISING political star Barack Obama is considering a run for the US presidency in 2008, backing off previous statements that he would not do so.

The uncle of a man jailed for seven years for stabbing a teenage father during a street brawl in Tallaght has been given a two year suspended sentence for production of a knife in relation to the fatal incident.

Mark Warner’s decision to bow out of the early US presidential race leaves a field still crowded with Democrats competing to be the most attractive alternative to front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The fate of a convicted killer from North Carolina, set to become the 1,000th person executed in the US since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, rests today with federal appeals courts and the state’s governor.

A Dublin man accused of fatally stabbing a young father in a street brawl has been found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court.

A Dublin man kissed his baby son on the head minutes before he was stabbed to death in a Tallaght street brawl, a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court heard today.

WELL, by now we’ve found out the self-styled eagle could squawk better than he could fly.

JOHN KERRY, assured of the Democratic nomination, is exploring options for a running mate, from southerners who can provide regional balance to those who can highlight economic problems under President George Bush.

US Senator John Edwards formally ended his pursuit of the Democratic nomination, pledging to “do everything in my power” to help John Kerry win the White House.

US Senator John Kerry coasted to victory in the Maine caucuses, wrapping up a three-state weekend sweep that pushed the Democratic front-runner closer to the party nomination than any of his vanquished rivals.

Residents up and down the US east coast boarded up windows and the military ordered ships and planes out of harm’s way as Hurricane Isabel headed toward land with 120mph winds.

POLICE in Virginia have stepped up security in advance of tonight’s execution of a Pakistani convicted of killing two CIA employees and wounding three others nine years ago.

New York City has voted in a cliffhanger election to choose a successor to popular mayor Rudolph Giuliani - one of dozens of races across the country, including two for state governor.