One of Oklahoma's largest earthquakes on record has rattled other parts of the Midwest in the US, from Nebraska to North Texas.

USA: Lightning, a spider, and now a snake — a central Florida man is proving to be a survivor.

The parents of a US toddler killed by an alligator at Florida's Walt Disney World said on Saturday they are overwhelmed by the support they have received since the death of their son.

A sheriff said charges are unlikely against a Nebraska couple after an alligator killed their two-year-old son by snatching him out of shallow water at a Walt Disney World beach, but the entertainment giant is reviewing whether to add alligator warning signs.

He has an Irish name and an English accent but writer Patrick Flanery is an all-American boy, as Sue Leonard discovers.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has disclosed a stake in Apple, betting that the technology company will rebound after a slump driven by a slowdown in iPhone sales.

Billionaire Warren Buffett said on Saturday that Berkshire Hathaway is poised to do well no matter who wins the White House in November, and the billionaire investor defended the performance and tactics of the conglomerate’s several large investments.

The richest people got richer in 2014, adding $92bn (€75.6bn) to their collective fortune in the face of falling energy prices and the geopolitical turmoil incited by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

A liquidator has been appointed to a medical services business set up by the pharmacist-turned-developer Fergus Hoban.

US customs and health officials have begun taking the temperatures of passengers arriving at New York’s Kennedy International Airport from three West African countries in a stepped-up screening effort meant to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus.

A sound operator on reality TV show Cops has been shot dead by police officers who opened fire during a robbery at a fast food restaurant.

A sound operator on reality TV show Cops has been shot dead by police officers who opened fire during a robbery at a fast food restaurant.

The US stock market staged a late rally yesterday, helping push the Dow Jones industrial average higher for the first time in a week.

With the death of Hollywood star Mickey Rooney this week, Ryle Dwyer examines the story of Boys Town, the Nebraska home that propelled Irish priest Edward Flanagan to international fame.

90 years of looking for secrets in wrong place

Retiring police dogs sniff out pensions

U2 frontman sings 'Stand By Me' at wedding of billionaire's granddaughter. As you do.

In the end, it wasn’t even a close shave.

Ed Sheeran thinks it is important to "give the UK a break".

The global food giant Heinz, which famously makes beans and tomato sauce, has been bought for $23bn (€17.2bn) by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Jorge Paulo Lemann’s 3G Capital

Taylor Swift has announced a 58-date concert tour.

"I do not believe that a child can be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a child’s character."

Carlos Slim, the telecommunications tycoon who controls Mexico’s America Movil, is the richest person on Earth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a brand-new daily ranking of the world’s 20 wealthiest individuals.

US FARMERS are more optimistic about their current and future economic situation than they were in September after profitable harvests, according to a survey-based index produced by DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

A schoolboy who killed a senior teacher calmly accepted a suspension for driving on an athletics field hours before he opened fire with his policeman father’s gun.

The deputy head gunned down by a pupil during a school shooting rampage lost her fight for life today.

A suspect has died after a shooting at a high school in Omaha, Nebraska, police said.

A suspect has died after a shooting at a high school in Omaha, Nebraska, police said.

Two police officers were shot and a suspect was critically injured in a shooting at a hospital today, police in the US said.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett again defended Goldman Sachs, saying faulty government regulations were to blame for most of the economic turmoil of the past few years, not investment banks.

IRISH pharmaceutical services company Icon has further expanded its presence in the US market on the back of a robust set of financial results for the first quarter of this year.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the US economy was still "in recession" and would continue to be for at least several more months.

Michael Phelps issued a statement of intent after his fifth individual victory in the US Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska last night.

Billionaires Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have told big businesses the pain they are feeling because of the credit crunch is their own fault.

Bon Jovi were forced to scrap rehearsals for the start of their new US tour over the weekend after a school shooting tragedy brought Dekalb, Illinois to a standstill.

A young woman shot dead two girl students in a classroom at a college in Louisiana today, then killed herself, police said.

Al-Qaida’s American-born spokesman urged fighters to greet US President George Bush with bombs not flowers when he visits the Middle East this week, according to a video posted on the internet today.

Al-Qaida’s American spokesman Adam Gadahn called on the terror network’s fighters to greet US President George Bush with "bombs and booby-trapped vehicles" when he visits the Middle East later this week, according to a new video posted today.

Police in the US arrested a 21-year-old university student in connection with an online threat to shoot people on campus, officials said last night.

Six of the eight victims of a teenage gunman who went on a shooting rampage in a shopping mall worked there, police said today.

The gunman who killed eight shoppers in a busy US mall apparently chose his victims at random, police said today.

A gunman who killed eight people at a busy shopping mall before taking his own life in Omaha, Nebraska last night left a suicide note that was found at his home by relatives, said a law enforcement official.

A man with a rifle opened fire at a busy shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska, today, killing eight people before taking his own life, police said.