England’s Brian Davis topped the qualifiers for the Open Championship after a six under par round of 64 at the Gleneagles Club in Plano, Texas as Sergio Garcia was forced out with an infected fingernail.

A month after finishing sixth in The Masters, 50-year-old Fred Couples is in Texas tomorrow trying to qualify for The Open at St Andrews, the course on which he came joint third behind Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomerie in 2005.

IT was a case of second time lucky for three young US backpackers who were denied entry to Ireland a fortnight ago, as the three friends breezed through customs in Dublin to begin their holiday of a lifetime.

PAUL AZINGER would have been forgiven for giving Hunter Mahan a wide berth when it came to selecting his four captain’s picks.

MILITANTS pounded central Baghdad yesterday with one of their most intense mortar barrages ever, targeting the Green Zone.

A US Army specialist was sentenced to eight months confinement today after he admitted abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.

A US Army specialist pleaded guilty today to abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison – the first military intelligence soldier to stand trial in the scandal that has so far focused prison guard reservists.

Even before sunrise, believers and nonbelievers alike poured into cinemas across the US on Ash Wednesday for the opening of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

Anglicans in the US plan to go ahead with the consecration of an openly gay bishop in defiance of a warning that it could “tear the fabric” of the Church and jeopardise its continued union.

Space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames over Texas today, killing all seven astronauts just 16 minutes before they were supposed to land in Cape Canaveral, Florida.