As Valerie June gets ready for gigs in Leap and Cork City, she tells Ed Power about the influences that have fed into her music

A teenager who was stolen from hospital as a newborn baby has been reunited with her birth family as the woman she thought was her mother was charged with her kidnapping.

Eleven hostages have been freed from a credit union in the Florida city of Jacksonville where they were held at gunpoint by a robbery suspect.

More than 200 million gallons of contaminated waste water from a fertiliser plant leaked into one of Florida's main underground sources of drinking water after a massive sinkhole opened up beneath a storage pond.

The land of the free aaaaaand … excuse me sir, could you step this way?

USA: Burger King is paying the expenses and providing gifts for the wedding of an Illinois couple with an interesting connection to the fast food chain. 

ENGLAND: One in five UK adults wish they could spend Valentine’s Day with their dream gadget instead of their loved one, according to research by the Gadget Show Live.

Greencore’s first production facility on the west coast of the US could nudge overall long-term annual revenue capability from its American operations up to almost $700 million (€563m).

He might have lost his European Tour card but Waterford’s Kevin Phelan is feeling so good about himself after a strong finish to his rookie season that he can’t wait to get to the European Tour Qualifying School.

A US student is gaining an internet reputation as a "squirrel whisperer" for befriending, feeding and dressing up a furry little friend she has named Sneezy.

A software developer has been convicted of attempted murder for shooting into a car full of teenagers after an argument over what he called their “thug music”, in the latest Florida case to raise questions about self-defence and race.

YOU’LL need to step outside Culhane’s Irish pub to realise how far you are from home.

Consider a couple of scenes from the golf world this year, with emphasis on ‘world’.

A petition to change the name of a Florida high school named after an early Ku Klux Klan leader has gathered nearly 90,000 signatures.

Illinois car parts baron Shahid Khan will find plenty of familiar faces and accents when he visits English soccer stadiums this year after spending an estimated $300 million to buy Fulham.

Politician accidently flashes followers

Greencore has acquired US snacks producer HC Schau & Son for around €15.5m, of which€10.4m is being paid in cash.

United States 5 Scotland 1

A neighbourhood watch volunteer was charged tonight with second-degree murder over the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.

The US police chief who has been bitterly criticised for not arresting a neighbourhood watch volunteer in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager and the county prosecutor both left the case, with the chief saying that he is temporarily stepping down to let passions cool.

MM: How important is a winning pro franchise to a city?

Hurricane Irene has smashed into the North Carolina coast, forecasters said.

WATERFORD Castle’s Kevin Phelan has been declared the winner of Monday’s US Open Local Qualifier in Jacksonville after an investigation by the USGA.

WATERFORD CASTLE amateur Kevin Phelan is on course to qualify for the US Open for the second year in a row.

British defence giant BAE Systems has completed the acquisition of Atlantic Marine Holding for $352m ($276.8m).

OFFICIALLY he’s playing in his first major as an American from St Augustine in Florida.

The world is just a day away from sweeping change in America, both presidential candidates declared today.

Emergency crews launched airboats into submerged streets to rescue central Florida residents trapped by rising floodwaters from a stalled Tropical Storm Fay, which soaked the state for a third consecutive day.

The nationwide manhunt for a US Marine wanted over the brutal killing of a 20-year-old pregnant colleague who had accused him of rape focused on Louisiana and Texas today, after he was apparently seen catching a bus.

Building materials group CRH has announced that it is to acquired the Cemex readymixed concrete and concrete block operations in Florida, US in a deal worth €170m.

The red-and-yellow winged roadster that starred in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been sold at auction for just over half a million dollars - to a Florida collector.

R&B star Alicia Keys is offering four scholarships to students who need financial help to attend university.

Police in the US say a nine-year-old boy Florida boy was locked in his bedroom for almost three years.

A gunman shot and killed one person and injured two others at a hospital in Fernandina Beach, Florida, today, then killed himself at a school, officials said.

For the first time in a professional career going back to 1987 Colin Montgomerie missed a fourth successive halfway cut today.

There will be no hiding place for Darren Clarke when the £5m (€7.3m) Players Championship starts in Florida on Thursday. He has been paired with Tiger Woods.

US President W Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major US seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal had already been approved by his administration, the White House said yesterday.

The governor of Florida today declared a state of emergency ahead of approaching Hurricane Wilma, but the state got a little breathing room when the storm’s slower pace postponed its likely landfall.

Thousands began fleeing Florida once again today as Hurricane Wilma hurtled towards the US coast.

Hurricane Rita strengthened to a dangerous Category 3 storm early today, sparing the Florida Keys but prompting mandatory orders to once again evacuate New Orleans as well as the Texas city of Galveston.

US federal emergency officials are directing hurricane-aid supplies to areas where hey aren’t needed, according to an Air Force official, causing delays that have left international aid shipments for Hurricane Katrina victims sitting at an Air Force base in Arkansas.

Tropical Storm Ophelia strengthened into a hurricane today as it stalled 70 miles off the north-east Florida coast, churning up waves that caused beach erosion and drenched Kennedy Space Centre with rain.

SANDY LYLE is focusing all his efforts on an unlikely Masters triumph after recovering from a recent cancer scare.