Authorities searching for two escaped killers who have been on the loose for the better part of a week have admitted they remain in the dark about the pair’s whereabouts.

A garda who was shot twice and left for dead on a street in New Orleans is looking forward to getting back to work and said he was hopeful of returning home in Ireland next week.

An Irish tourist has been left in a critical condition in Australia after allegedly being hit by his own brother.

A 53-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a blaze in a fireworks warehouse in the UK.

A 57-year-old man was killed by a 15ft crocodile in front of his wife while the couple fished in a northern Australian river notorious for the deadly predators.

Extra police officers on Chicago’s streets were not enough to quell a long weekend of violence that ended with 14 people shot dead and dozens more injured.

A car bomb exploded killing four people in a Christian part of Nigeria’s second biggest city Kano, police said.

A five-storey building under construction in the southern Indian state of Goa has collapsed, killing at least seven workers and leaving dozens more feared trapped under the rubble.

At least 21 people have been killed and about 20 others injured when a passenger bus plunged from an elevated highway and fell onto a van in suburban Manila, a Philippine police official said.

Gunmen have wounded at least 19, including two children, in a Mother’s Day neighbourhood parade in New Orleans.

Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in a Mother’s Day neighbourhood parade in New Orleans, wounding at least 18, including two children.

A truck carrying pilgrims returning from a Hindu shrine in the Himalayas has veered off a mountain road and plunged into a gorge in northern India, killing 16 people.

Australian police say a four-year-old girl has been killed in her suburban Melbourne home by a neighbour's escaped dog.

At least one person was killed and six others injured when an improvised bomb exploded in front of a gun store in the southern Philippines, officials said today.

Searchers today declared that no one had died in the rubble of Christchurch’s cathedral – a rare piece of good news in the final days of a grim recovery operation following an earthquake that devastated New Zealand’s second-largest city and killed at least 165 people.

Fresh aftershocks sent masonry tumbling among rescuers in New Zealand’s quake zone and a cat sparked false alarms today of a possible survivor, as the disaster’s death toll rose to 145 with more than 200 missing.

RESCUERS were searching for any signs of life today after an earthquake devastated one of New Zealand’s largest cities as Prime Minister John Key declared it a national disaster and analysts estimated its cost at up to 12 billion Australian dollars (€8.7bn).

ALL 29 men missing in a New Zealand coal mine died after a powerful second blast tore through the pit, plunging the country into mourning.

Police said today 29 people were believed to be dead after a second blast inside the New Zealand mine where they were trapped.

Police and mine rescue crews in New Zealand have acknowledged for the first time that the 29 miners trapped underground since an explosion on Friday may not have survived.

Anguished relatives of 29 workers missing after an explosion at New Zealand coal mine grew frustrated over delays in the rescue operation today, as officials prepared to drill a small hole through hundreds of feet of rock to test for levels of deadly gases.

Hollywood star John Travolta today told of his heartbreak at his 16-year-old son’s tragic death.

John Travolta’s 16-year-old son was “spectacularly supervised” before he was found collapsed at the family’s holiday home on Grand Bahama, a lawyer for the actor said today.

A gun recovered by police was used in the killings of actress Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and nephew, it was confirmed today.

At least 168 people were killed and 100 injured when thousands of pilgrims stampeded today at a Hindu temple in the historic town of Jodhpur in western India, officials said.

A student ran amok with a pistol at a Finnish adult training college killing several people today.

A vagrant wanted for questioning in a rape overpowered an American police officer who was trying to handcuff him, then shot her to death with her own gun, according to police.

A deadly gunfight on a bridge in the anarchy-filled days following Hurricane Katrina became a symbol of New Orleans’ loss of control. Now, more than a year later, seven police officers face charges in the shootings.

Four members of the same family were found gunned down at their home in England today.

A stampede broke out early today outside a stadium near Manila where thousands had lined up to watch a popular game show, killing at least 88 people and injuring 280 others, officials said.

US investigators are today searching for suspects in one of the city’s bloodiest crimes in recent memory after four men were fatally shot in a basement that neighbours said had been set up as a music studio.

SOME of New Orleans’ most popular neighbourhoods officially reopened to residents yesterday, a move that could bring back about a third of the city’s half a million inhabitants.

Police in Zimbabwe say they have razed more than 20,000 shacks and other structures in what President Robert Mugabe calls an urban cleanup campaign – but what critics at home and abroad have decried as an assault on the poor.

A bus plunged into a mountain gorge in northern India today after it suffered a mechanical fault and went out of control, killing 28 people.

At least seven people have been injured after two cars exploded within minutes of each other outside the Pakistan-American cultural centre in Karachi today.

THE car-parts warehouse, with only one entrance, was a maze of crates and 55-gallon drums.

Indian officials have said at least 18 people were been killed when a train fell off a bridge today.

At least 28 people were feared dead today after a cyclone swept through India’s remote north-east Assam state.

OFFICIALS have threatened to bring criminal charges against the Chicago nightclub where 21 people were killed in a stampede, saying the owners violated a court order by keeping the club open.

Chicago officials today threatened to seek criminal charges against the night club where 21 people were killed in a stampede, saying the owners violated a court order by keeping the club open.

THE biggest statue that late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos built to immortalise himself was blown up yesterday.

Less than a day after police foiled a plot to kill American diplomats in Pakistan, US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca arrived in the capital to discuss the war on terror.

A talented student, known as a loner who struggled with the English language, gunned down two fellow students at a Australian university today -- the day he was due to make his final presentation.

An elderly husband and wife were beaten by a gang during a brutal burglary at their home in Co Antrim today.