THESE dark evenings, against the grey sky, rooks tour in their thousands and squawk and caw and make metallic noises that overwhelm all other sound but for the lambent, repetitive notes of a blackbird and the full-throated variations of a song thrush carolling from the top of a tree.

A 90-YEAR-OLD man was jailed for 17 years yesterday for battering his wife of 67 years to death with a hammer in the US.

A 90-year-old was jailed for 17 years today for battering his wife of 67 years to death with a hammer in the US.

A Christmas Day letter penned by the author of A Christmas Carol is up for sale at a US auction house.

Anti-abortion extremist James Kopp has been sentenced to 25 years to life for shooting dead a doctor, declaring: ”I wish I could do 10 life sentences or 10 death penalties” to save the unborn.

An anti-abortion extremist is facing a new murder charge, almost a month after he admitted in a jail interview that he killed a doctor who provided terminations.

A gunman entered a home in a quiet suburban California neighbourhood and shot five people, killing three, police said.