Within hours of President John F Kennedy’s assassination, most Americans were familiar with the name Lee Harvey Oswald. Certain images of him — posing with a rifle, recoiling from Jack Ruby’s gun — have been ingrained in memory. Yet he remains an enigma.

White House planners did not include Cork in the first draft itinerary they prepared for President Kennedy’s visit to Ireland.

A WOMAN’S world was a different place when Alice O’Sullivan was crowned the first Rose of Tralee representing Dublin in 1959.

THE French have a saying that the more things change the more they stay the same. This weekend thousands of young people will flock to the Oxegen music festival at Punchestown, but unlike some such gatherings elsewhere, it does not seem to have any real focus of protest.

Hampton Sides

WHAT WAS BEING VOTED ON?

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife were released from a West Texas jail after their arrest for allegedly not paying a $10,000 (€6,800) California hotel bill.

LAST Tuesday I just happened to put on a recording of Joan Baez singing “We Shall Overcome,” and suddenly I thought of the poignancy of the day.

IT IS almost too late for an October surprise. But Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain should be wary of the last weekend.

Barack Obama offered his closing argument in the race for the White House today as he returned to his message of hope for America and linked Republican rival John McCain to increasingly unpopular President George Bush.

The way conspiracy theories grow demonstrates the need for investigations to be seen to be thorough and impartial.

US President George Bush’s stance on a Democratic agreement to set a timetable on the Iraq war has not changed: he will not accept it.

Awaiting the recommendations of a commission exploring US options in Iraq, the White House today emphatically ruled out some proposals to end the long and unpopular war.

The population of the United States officially hit 300 million at 7.46am EDT (12.46pm Irish Time) today, when the Census Bureau’s population clock rolled over to the big number.

A US soldier charged with deserting his unit in Iraq walked away from the war partly to avoid orders to abuse Iraqi prisoners, a court-martial was told.

President George W Bush, under mounting political pressure, will sign an executive order to establish a full-blown investigation of US intelligence failures in Iraq, a senior White House official said.

The 40th anniversary of the Beatles first tour of the United States is being celebrated with an exhibition of black and white photographs which organisers say have not been published before.

The prison meeting in The Hague between Slobodan Milosevic and his lawyers has been delayed because Milosevic’s luggage, which his legal team had brought from Belgrade, was lost at Amsterdam airport, one of his lawyers said.