Advantage card players aren’t cheaters, but they hone the sharpest (legal) edge they can, reports Michael Kaplan

A woman has died after collapsing while hiking and mountain biking during a record-breaking heatwave in Phoenix.

Frank Sinatra would have turned 100 this year, and his former home in Palm Springs is still drawing fans, writes Isabel Conway.          

An elderly husband and wife stranded for two weeks in southern California’s high desert ate oranges and a pie and drank rainwater that they collected in cups, but the 79-year-old husband died at some point before the couple’s rescue.

ON his 18th birthday, Wilfred Truly, better known to everyone he’s ever met as Wolf, takes the tramcar up a southern California mountain with the intention of hiking off trail and leaping to his death from Angel Peak. 

ENGLAND: A smartphone made with grass cut from the home of England’s rugby team has been unveiled.

ENGLAND: A TV journalist has been described as being as “cool as a cucumber” for carrying on without flinching when he was the victim of a snowball attack while live on a news channel.

Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow are going on a "spiritual and physical detox" after the Christmas season.

Following her recent high-profile campaign blitz during the midterm elections, talk of Michelle Obama running for the US Senate is gaining momentum on Capitol Hill, writes Bette Browne

Stand-up comic robot an automatic winner of science photography prize

Rory McIlroy raised question marks over the redesigned Blue Monster — and his own resolve when facing taxing courses — when he suggested he might skip Trump National Doral were it not a World Golf Championship venue.

Ralph Waite, who played the kind-and-steady patriarch of a tight-knit rural Southern family on the TV series The Waltons, died on Thursday, his manager said. He was 85.

Kaley Cuoco is planning to marry her fiancé on New Year's Eve.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart secretly checked into a hotel with their two dogs last week.

Doctors are looking into the mystery of a Florida man who awoke speaking only Swedish, with no memory of his past, after he was found unconscious four months ago at a Southern California motel.

Doctors are looking into the mystery of a US man who awoke speaking only Swedish, with no memory of his past.

A man died and another was in hospital in a serious condition as a heatwave blistered parts of the US.

Lindsay Lohan was allegedly "making life hell" for staff and other patients at the Betty Ford clinic before she moved to another rehab facility.

Kristen Stewart wants Robert Pattinson to be her date for the Met Ball tonight.

SO, the Taoiseach believes voters will not want to be “bribed” into backing the Yes campaign in the EU fiscal compact referendum — sorry, Enda, but have you ever met the Irish people?

Whitney Houston's estate contains a pair of Ginger Rogers' dancing shoes personally signed by the screen icon.

In an explosive allegation, a woman said that she and Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain had a 13-year extramarital affair that lasted nearly until the former businessman announced his candidacy for the White House several months ago.

FREDDIE ROACH predicts Amir Khan will become boxing’s next superstar by emulating the popularity of Manny Pacquiao.

Caleb Followill is set to marry in May.

Lindsay Lohan is being released from rehab so she can spend Thanksgiving Day with her father.

Tom Bosley, whose long acting career was highlighted by his hugely popular role as the understanding father on television's nostalgic, top-rated 1970s comedy series 'Happy Days', died today. He was 83.

A MEDIA reception at the Irish Consulate in New York.

PETE SAMPRAS. Andre Agassi. Andre Agassi. Pete Sampras.

Alex Prugh became the third different leader of the Bob Hope Classic in as many rounds as he shot a seven-under 65 in Palm Springs, California.

Bubba Watson shot a 10-under-par 62 to take the lead as the second round finally got played at the rain-hit Bob Hope Classic in California.

Heavy rains in California forced the postponement of the second round of the Bob Hope Classic today.

THERE’S a whole lot of house for a lot less money at Windsor Hill, Glounthaune.

NEIGHBOURING north Kerry and west Limerick parishes were last night trying to come to terms with tragedies that claimed the lives of a young solider and a schoolboy.

Talk show queen Ellen De Generes will marry her actress girlfriend Portia De Rossi in a lavish ceremony in Palm Springs, California later this year, according to reports.

RICKY HATTON hopes to have secured his next two fights within a week — with bouts on both sides of the Atlantic planned.

A SHORT Irish film being screened at top international festivals is to be shown to audiences across the country.

If you drive east out of Los Angeles towards Palm Springs, you cross a vast desert. It is arid. It is monotonous.

Former US President George Bush Snr was treated at a California hospital for dehydration and released today after collapsing during a golf game in Palm Springs.

SIDNEY Sheldon, an Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter who went on to become one of the world’s most prolific novelists, died in California on Tuesday at the age of 89, a publicist said.

Six days of national mourning for former US President Gerald Ford has begun with military honours and a simple family prayer service at his parish church.

It looks like Keith Urban’s in-patient spell in rehab may have come to an end after he was reportedly spotted out at LA’s trendy Polo Lounge having brunch with his wife, Nicole Kidman.

Authorities investigating the California arson attack that killed four firefighters have questioned and released two “persons of interest”, police said today.

Calmer winds helped crews fighting a massive wildfire today that killed four firefighters and critically injured a fifth, while investigators searched for the arsonist who set the blaze roaring through the canyons of Southern California.

Authorities are offering a $500,000 (€393,000) reward for the arrest of the arsonist responsible for the deaths of four firefighters in America’s worst tragedy of its kind in five years.