We're open for business is the defiant message from traders and residents on Cork's North Main Street who used the street's closure to hold a pop-up street party over the weekend to highlight the area’s vibrant culture.

A man stabbed his ex-partner’s mother to death then left a chilling message in blood before leaping from the top floor of a city centre car park today, a police source said.

US soldiers escorting a convoy of prisoners released from the Abu Ghraib jail came under fire today after they stopped in the middle of a road outside the Iraqi capital.