Last week, the pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay just over $570m (€518m) in compensation by a court in the south western US state of Oklahoma. Irony of ironies, the company’s share price rose following the news, the markets having anticipated that the award would be even higher.

The next Sunday Songbook singalong show at the Everyman features the tunes of Vera Lynn, writes Cathy Desmond.

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay about $1bn (€893m) to resolve most lawsuits claiming it sold defective metal-on-metal hips that had to be removed, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A sequel to the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump was completed by the same writer, Eric Roth in 2001, but was never to be because of 9/11.

The enormous success of Hamilton has underlined the enduring appeal of musical theatre. Marjorie Brennan selects the best shows of the year ahead.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has taken the first major step towards launching a widely anticipated campaign for the presidency.

Oil jumped as Saudi Arabia prepares to slash shipments to US refiners within weeks in an effort to prevent a price-killing build-up of American stockpiles.

A family festival in Limerick at Easter depicted a teenage girl slitting her wrists, leaving children in tears.

What was he thinking?, asks Daniel McConnell.

It was declared a “national emergency” when 495 were recorded on hospital trollies in 2006. But yesterday marked the 43rd time this year that tally has been topped, leading to calls for the Government to admit the crisis is out of control.

When Leo Varadkar sits down with Donald Trump in the White House today he either can smile and nod or he can take the opportunity to raise important but difficult issues such as LGBT rights.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has admitted he is baffled by the sky-rocketing trolley count crisis after claiming he does not know why the situation is spiralling out of control.

It was a tale of an extremely familiar heartache that forced one oppressed nation to help another.

A trade war between the EU and US would be much more damaging to the Irish whiskey industry than the impact of Brexit on other agri-food sectors, producers have warned.

It was a case of “I’ll be back” when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met the Terminator in Texas.

The Taoiseach is to travel to Oklahoma to thank the Choctaw nation for providing relief to Ireland during the Great Famine, more than 170 years after members of the nation of Native Americans donated to those starving 7,000km away here.

Latest: One person has died and another was seriously injured after a chartered train carrying Republican members of Congress to a retreat struck a refuse truck in Virginia, the White House has confirmed.

Budweiser has switched all its US brewing to renewable electricity and is adding a clean energy logo to its labels as part of a global shift to green power by its parent Anheuser-Busch InBev, writes Alister Doyle.

Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy have the potential to compete in long drive competitions, but would have to focus exclusively on the discipline for a year or so to be competitive, according to world champion Justin James.

An Oklahoma man has been arrested after threatening to carry out shootings in Oklahoma City and San Antonio similar to the mass shooting in Las Vegas, police said.

Big pharma is having a big tobacco moment as litigation over opioids attract star lawyers and a growing list of US states and local governments seeking their own multi-billion payout to deal with costs of a burgeoning US drug epidemic.

The FBI has arrested a 23-year-old man who allegedly attempted to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van outside an Oklahoma bank.

A man has crashed his vehicle into the new Ten Commandments monument in Arkansas, nearly three years after he was arrested over the destruction of Oklahoma's monument at its state Capitol, authorities said.

The Irish people and the Native American Choctaw nation are bonded by the difficulties they have endured in their respective cultures and the resilience they have shown to overcome hardships, the Chief of the Choctaw Nation told a gathering in Co Cork yesterday.

Iceland calling

The chief of an Native American nation and a number of his people will be special guests at the official unveiling of a magnificent eagle feather sculpture which commemorates the generosity of his forebears to the Irish during the Great Famine.

A lawyer for Ms Shelby said the officer was "elated" that the jury found her not guilty.

Latest: Private Manning later said that she is uncertain where her life will take her after serving seven years in jail.

Chelsea Manning's Welsh mother has spoken of her pride for the Wikileaks whistleblower before her release from prison.

Nine executions in Ohio, including that of a child killer, have been delayed due to a court fight over the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection process.

Shares in Providence Resources jumped more than 7% yesterday on the back of the Dublin-based explorer reporting a near €4m narrowing of annual losses.

Choctaw artist Waylon Gary White Deer has settled so well in Ireland that he’s appeared in Fair City and even counted the late Martin McGuinness among his friends, writes Aisling Meath. 

The weakening of the Environmental Protection Agency in the US and subsequent increase in worldwide pesticide use could have dire consequences, writes Mojisola Ojebode.

Two boys have been electrocuted by power lines downed during violent weather in Texas, officials said.

The Trump administration has issued a presidential permit to pipeline builder TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

Quote of the week: “I understand that they feel like that is their body. I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a ‘host’.”

With Donald Trump set to enter the White House later this month and populists on the march across Europe, political risk will loom large in 2017.

A solicitor conceded there was a “certain amount of misdirected religious zeal” when prayer meetings and counselling led to the harassment of a female American preacher by a Kerry woman.

A US inmate heaved and coughed 13 minutes into his execution by injection and appeared to move during tests meant to determine consciousness.

Jill Colvin looks at how Donald Trump kept reeling in support despite numerous gaffes that would have sunk anyone else

A massive, week-long manhunt for a suspect in a string of violent crimes, including the killing of two relatives, the shooting of two police officers and multiple carjackings, ended on Sunday evening in a police chase and shootout.

You may noticed an unusual street performance if you were in Cork city this morning.