The remains of one of Ireland’s finest Georgian villas could face demolition after it was gutted in a suspected arson attack.

WOODHILL HOUSE, and its wooded grounds a couple of miles from Cork city at Tivoli, is steeped in Irish and local Munster mercantile, artistic and political history, over several centuries.

An Indiana couple accused of holding a woman captive for two months, often locking her in a small wooden cage, was charged with rape, criminal confinement, kidnapping and other felonies in a case one officer likened to "modernised slavery."

EARLY CHRISTMAS

Seventy-one police officers have been injured in four nights of rioting in the North linked to the banning of a contentious Orange Order parade.

Police in Belfast continued to clash with crowds during a fourth night of violence in the North.

FOR most of the year The Burren is more moonscape than landscape.

Falling temperatures on the East Coast today put more people at risk in a region already battling petrol shortages, power cuts and spasms of lawlessness in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

US President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney vied aggressively for the support of female voters, accusing each other of failing America’s women as they fought to keep up the momentum after their contentious, finger-pointing debate.

A MAN suspected of killing three people whose dismembered bodies were found in a hollow tree has been charged with aggravated murder, burglary, kidnapping and rape.

MY GRANDFATHER, Pat Harris, spoke proudly of marching to Macroom on Easter Monday, 1916, and of being arrested with Terence MacSwiney on August 12, 1920, at a meeting of the officers of Cork No 1 Brigade in Cork’s City Hall. But he never spoke about what the First Cork Brigade did in the two years that followed.

Three men were arrested today by police probing a string of loyalist killings in north Belfast.

Police in the North have arrested a 39-year-old man in connection with a loyalist murder in north Belfast more than 12 years ago.

A top loyalist and a former leading member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, Mark Haddock, was today charged with the murder of a 39-year-old man in the North more than a decade ago.

Loyalist Mark Haddock was charged tonight with the murder of a 39-year-old man in 1997.

NORTH Belfast loyalist leader Mark Haddock has been arrested in jail for questioning over four murders during the Troubles.

Two more men will appear in court today charged with the murder of a leading loyalist during a bitter feud in Belfast nearly a decade ago.

Three more men were arrested today by police investigating the murder of a leading loyalist during a bitter feud in Belfast nearly a decade ago.

A loyalist leader will appear in court today charged with gunning down a rival during a bloody paramilitary feud in the North.

A top loyalist was arrested at a jail in the North today by police investigating the murder of another Protestant paramilitary.

A man shot dead a sheriff’s deputy in Washington state, then led officers on a car chase in which he killed five other people before turning himself in, police said today.

The father of a man murdered by a loyalist gang riddled with police informers will today become the first person from a unionist background to address Sinn Féin’s annual conference.

More than 200 Rolls-Royce workers and supporters marched through Liverpool city centre today in protest at the closure of a factory which will see 200 jobs axed.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy ended a Washington visit marked by talk of cooperation on difficult international issues and strengthening relations between the United States and France.

Nicolas Sarkozy began his first visit to Washington as French president with a pledge that France has left behind tensions with the United States over the Iraq war.

Two women and a man have been arrested in the North in connection with the murder of schoolboy Thomas Devlin.

Two women and a man were being questioned tonight about the brutal murder of schoolboy Thomas Devlin.

Detectives hunting the killers of Belfast schoolboy Thomas Devlin carried out new searches in a loyalist housing estate today.

THE father of a teenager murdered in a loyalist area in north Belfast two years ago yesterday urged Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to withdraw the Government’s financial support for projects in the area.

The mother of a murdered Belfast teenager is appealing to the Taoiseach to stop funding a loyalist community project in north Belfast.

OVER 70 viewings in a little over a week: you’d think No 1 Mount Vernon was some swanky, must-have pile. But, it’s not. Not yet at least.

THREE men arrested yesterday at a temporary halting site in Watergrasshill, Co Cork, were related to a man killed in Saturday evening’s road crash on a dual carriageway in Cork.

IT is both ludicrous and hypocritical to hear Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern call on the British government to strengthen the powers of Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan in the wake of the appalling collusion she uncovered between the security forces in the North and loyalist paramilitaries.

THE father of a toddler who died after a four-hour wait in hospital hit out at medics yesterday, saying “nobody took any notice” of his son’s failing health.

THE Government will push Britain to prosecute police officers who colluded with loyalist killers in the North.

Northern Chief Constable Hugh Orde will be questioned today about collusion between his officers and a gang of loyalist killers.

FORMER RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan last night resisted demands for his resignation over revelations that police in the North protected a loyalist murder gang.

Sinn Féin is seeking a debate at the Stormont Assembly on yesterday's collusion report from the Police Ombudsman.

The family of one of at least 10 people killed by loyalists who were working as Special Branch informers today demanded a fully independent inquiry into collusion.

A loyalist paramilitary gang was involved in up to 15 murders while working as police informers, a damning report revealed today.

Devastating evidence that loyalist paramilitary informers were allowed to get away with a series of murders in the North will be revealed today.

A POLICE Ombudsman press conference in Belfast today, into allegations of RUC collusion with loyalist paramilitaries in 18 murders between 1990 and 2003, will hear calls for a public inquiry into the activities of the North’s police.

The North’s Police Ombudsman is carrying out a witch-hunt against RUC officers who defended the public against terror, a unionist peer claimed today.