USA: Lottery ticket buyers in New Hampshire who dream of bringing home the bacon now can smell it, too.

CHINA: Upset by a delayed flight, at least two Chinese passengers decided to open emergency exit doors in protest as the plane was taxiing, forcing it to abort takeoff and landing them in jail instead, police said yesterday.

THE Old Vic’s version of The Crucible, due to be sccreened soon in Irish cinemas, grabs you by the throat. Arthur Miller’s timeless classic was inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hunt for communists in 1950s America but is set amidst the hysteria of the 1692 Salem witch trials in New England.

The homeless man who accompanied US singer Miley Cyrus to the MTV Video Music Awards has a warrant out for his arrest in Oregon.

Australian studio Airtight Games launches its latest title, Murdered: Soul Suspect, this week and it's a title that manages to do something fresh for once.

Enon

Louise Fletcher said she was so cruel in her role as Nurse Ratched she can not bear to watch 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest' any more.

REPUBLICAN presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum looked past each other to run down President Barack Obama’s economic policies, as they jockeyed for support in New Hampshire and reached out to voters in conservative bellwether South Carolina.

Set in 1692, The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s allegorical drama of witch hunts and hysteria, is still relevant today, says Colette Sheridan.

A US citizen in custody in Yemen as a suspected al-Qaida member had worked at six nuclear plants in the States, officials in New Jersey said.

The sister of an Irishman shot dead by a US police officer insisted her brother had not posed a threat, despite a grand jury ruling backing the officer.

An overflow of supporters cheered Barack Obama today as polls showed the Illinois senator was poised for a second come-from-behind victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton in a week.

A 19-year-old woman’s 911 emergency call from the scene of the Virginia Tech shootings was published today.

A US couple upset that their 19-year-old daughter was pregnant tied her up, loaded her in their car and began driving to New York to force her to get an abortion, police said.

A man who allegedly held up banks by claiming he had a bomb in a bag was arrested after police found the bag actually contained books – including a phone book that had a mailing label with the man’s full name and address.

Joe Calzaghe’s WBO super-middleweight title defence against Brian Magee in Belfast tomorrow has been cancelled.

British American Tobacco and RJ Reynolds Tobacco have agreed to merge their US tobacco businesses, uniting the nation’s second and third largest tobacco companies in an effort to blunt the attacks of sagging sales and cheaper brands.

ISRAEL freed more than 300 Palestinian prisoners yesterday, delivering them into the arms of waiting families in near-simultaneous releases across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Susannah Martin, hanged in 1692 during the Salem witch trials, can finally rest in peace.

A Scotsman seen driving down a US motorway with a woman’s legs dangling outside his rented Jaguar no longer faces kidnapping charges.