AN EXPERIENCED officer has been severely reprimanded, fined and asked to consider her position in the armed forces after going absent without leave from her duties.

A deadly winter storm that caked America’s centre with a thick layer of ice claimed at least 17 lives and blacked out more than 600,000 homes and businesses.

Fire swept through a house in Waynesburg, south-western Pennsylvania, in the United States early today, killing five young children and one adult and injuring one other person, state police said.

President Mary McAleese today paid tribute to a young soldier killed in an off-road training accident at the Curragh, Co Kildare.