Some of the stranger stories from around the world

Cork-based multinational outsourcing company Voxpro has more than trebled its US workforce after announcing 450 positions at its base in California.

Some of the more unususal stories from around the world.

Apple engineers are said to have made inquiries about a former California navy base-turned test centre, revving up rumours that the tech giant is designing a car.

USA: Jeanette and Alexander Toczko were each eight years old when they became smitten with one another. 

Some 80% of around 800 Irish J1 students were among those that gathered at a park for a candlelit vigil to remember those who died in this week’s Berkeley balcony tragedy.

A candlelight vigil for the victims of the Berkeley tragedy

The balcony below the one that collapsed, killing six young students, including five Irish, was removed yesterday after being branded an immediate “collapse hazard” by Berkeley city inspectors.

The families of six students killed in a balcony collapse in the US are expected to learn today the early indications of the cause of the accident.

USA: A water manager is facing discipline after he was caught urinating in an empty reservoir that supplies drinking water for the San Francisco Bay Area.

A dangerous storm system blamed for two deaths in Oregon and thousands of power outages in Washington state has swept south through California, causing mudslides and evacuations.

Angry crowds poured into the streets of Ferguson within minutes of news that a grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer over the death of an unarmed black 18-year-old.

Google has signed a long-term lease for part of a historic US navy air base, where it plans to renovate three massive hangars and use them for projects involving aviation, space exploration and robotics.

MOP HANDED

Google’s secretive research laboratory is trying to build a fleet of drones designed to by-pass earthbound traffic to deliver packages to people more quickly.

California is assessing the damage after a powerful earthquake struck the heart of the US state’s wine country, catching many people sound asleep.

Addiction seemed to stalk Robin Williams, taunting him when he least expected it.

‘Some say it’s a muse — I say it’s a demon’

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are donating $120m (€88m) to the San Francisco Bay Area’s public school system.

US airport chiefs have launched a major security probe after a 15-year-old boy climbed into a airliner’s wheel well, then flew for five freezing hours from California to Hawaii.

Officials say a 16-year-old boy is “lucky to be alive” and unharmed after flying from California to Hawaii stowed away in a plane’s wheel well, surviving cold temperatures at 38,000 feet and a lack of oxygen.

A San Francisco Bay Area man wants Google Maps to remove an aerial image that shows the body of his 14-year-old son, who was shot and killed in 2009.

Irish students will soon be surfing to California to peer into deep space... without leaving the country.

A wildfire raging on the edge of the Yosemite National Park threatened both one of America’s premier sites of natural beauty and a reservoir that supplies San Francisco.

Guidewire Software has announced 75 new jobs for its centre in Blanchardstown in Dublin this morning.

SATURDAY

THE city of Oakland, California, has legalised large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for “industrial” cultivation starting next year.

Four teenagers were charged today in connection with the gang rape and beating of a 15-year-old girl outside her high school homecoming dance in Northern California.

An escaped IRA prisoner who has lived in immigration limbo for 25 years in California may see it all unravel from inside a detention centre this week.

An escaped IRA prisoner who has lived in immigration limbo for 25 years in California may see it all unravel from inside a South Texas federal detention centre this week.

California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists say.

California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists said today.

Thousands of Americans have barricaded their homes against a powerful storm which has led to flights being ground, road closures and power cuts.

"Sean, it's me. I just wanted to let you know I love you and I'm stuck in this building in New York."