Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s controversial St Patrick’s Day meeting with US president Donald Trump will take place during an expanded trade mission, writes political correspondent Fiachra Ó Cionnaith.

A police officer has been praised for shooting dead a man who drove his car into a crowd at Ohio State University and began to stab people with a butcher's knife.

A 13-year-old black boy was fatally shot by a white Ohio police officer after pulling out a real-looking pellet gun during a confrontation, police said.

ENGLAND: Birmingham has been crowned the funniest city in the UK, according to a study.

The United States has returned to Italy a letter written by Christopher Columbus in 1493 about his discovery of the New World that was stolen from a Florence library and unwittingly acquired by the Library of Congress.

USA: A Massachusetts newspaper publisher is asking the Rolling Stones to return to town 50 years after they cut short a show during a thunderstorm, leading fans to rampage.

An 18-year-old woman live-streamed the rape of her 17-year-old friend by a man with whom she had been drinking, a prosecutor has said in announcing a rape and kidnapping indictment.

USA: A Connecticut woman celebrating her 50th birthday in style has been charged with robbing the limousine driver she hired to chauffeur her around town.

A jury has acquitted an Ohio man of stalking Gwyneth Paltrow. Prosecutors had said he had sent her dozens of unsolicited letters and gifts in recent years.

USA: Steven Assanti, of Cranston, refers to himself as a monster. He wants to eventually inspire others who struggle with their weight.

USA: Three sets of twins were born on the same day at a Montana hospital — adding up to more than half of the hospital’s births that day.

DENMARK: A radio station is defending a live show during which the host killed a baby rabbit by hitting it with a bicycle pump, saying it was intended to show the hypocrisy of animal lovers.

ENGLAND: They just cannot Let It Go ... Leigh Dryden and her three boys can lay claim to being Britain’s biggest Frozen fans after watching the film an astounding 500 times.

A father mourning the death of his baby daughter asked users of the website Reddit to help him create a picture of her without medical tubes. He asked, and they helped.

From Dracula to Fr Ted and Boyzone, we have devised some of the most brilliant, but often annoying, things on the planet, says John Daly.

Monkeys perfect the art of conversation

Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro may have died from auto-erotic asphyxiation — not suicide — and two prison guards falsified logs documenting observation of him in the hours before he died, the state said.

Tiger Woods won the deciding match for a third straight time and the United States lifted the Presidents Cup for a fifth straight time as they beat the International team 18.5 to 15.5 in Dublin, Ohio.

Chilli reception awaits pickled immigrant caught red-handed

Ohio’s prison system is reviewing how Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro - perhaps the most notorious figure behind bars in the state – managed to hang himself with a bedsheet while in protective custody.

Rain may be forecast but a rainbow of colour is expected over Cork this bank holiday weekend as one of the country’s largest gay pride festivals takes place.

Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the US border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the US — an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world’s most lucrative narcotics market and maximise profits.

US president Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney are storming into the last day of their long presidential contest, mounting a final thrust before Election Day and engaging in the toughest battleground state – Ohio.

Superstorm Sandy’s mayhem is upending the final week of the presidential race, with US president Barack Obama calling off another of the waning days left to campaign and Republican Mitt Romney struggling to strike the right tone as he tries to close the deal with voters.

Barack Obama worked to hang on to his slim lead in the crucial battleground state of Ohio and bounce back from a disappointing debate performance that re-energised the campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

A celebration of Tralee’s 400th anniversary of its charter, granted by an English king, has gone unmarked.

President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are embarking on a travel-heavy week through battleground US states, with both campaigns wrangling over unrest in the Middle East and who is best equipped to rejuvenate the economy.

President Barack Obama plunged into his campaign for a new term and tore into rival Mitt Romney as a willing and eager “rubber stamp” for conservative Republicans in Congress who want to cut taxes for the rich.

Barack Obama will headline his first re-election rallies next week.

A man cleaning his muzzle-loading rifle accidentally shot and killed a 15-year-old Amish girl driving a horse-drawn buggy more than a mile away, an Ohio sheriff says.

A 5.9 MAGNITUDE earthquake centred in Virginia yesterday forced evacuations of all the monuments in Washington and rattled nerves from the southern state of Georgia to Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts island in the northeast where President Barack Obama is vacationing. No injuries were immediately reported.

There was no referee to call a halt so it was left to a game of ball to close the widening chasm and offer momentary respite.

JOB offers are rolling in for a homeless Ohio man with a golden radio voice who has become an online sensation. And industry experts believe he could quickly become a millionaire.

A SUSPICIOUS device that caused a bomb scare for rail workers in the US was most likely a prop from a Denzel Washington movie, a sheriff said.

The space shuttle Endeavour and its six astronauts returned safely to Earth today, ending a mission that resulted in the virtual completion of the International Space Station.

The only US Army officer convicted over the 1968 massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai has made an extraordinary public apology while speaking to a small group near the military base where he went on trial.

THREE people have been accused of letting rats bite a six-week-old baby girl and chew off her toes at their cluttered mobile home.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised a decision by a city mayor to take down a statue of Christopher Columbus in Caracas.