When they woke 75 years ago this morning, the people of Dresden were faced by “the opened gates of hell”.

You’re the director of one of the world’s best athletics meetings. It’s Saturday night in New York City, prime time, and you’re live to the nation on NBC.

Brenda Woulfe owns Woulfe’s Bookshop in the town of Listowel,Co Kerry

Timothy L O’Brien says describing Donald Trump’s racist baiting of four new Democratic congresswomen of different ethnic backgrounds as ‘strategic’ gives him too much credit.

Helen O’Callaghan says a viral video of a dad interacting with his baby shows how mirroring behaviour is key for a child’s development.

A list of US candidates who made history in the midterm elections

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As riots erupted and smoke billowed from black neighbourhoods in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination, Robert F Kennedy met with black activists, politicians, and celebrities in a hotel suite ‘to tamp things down and divine what should come next,’ writes David Margolick in ‘The Promise and the Dream: The Untold Story of Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert F Kennedy’. In this excerpt, Margolick examines Kennedy’s response to the killing — and his belief that he, too, would die by an assassin’s hand.

Justin Timberlake’s enthusiastic portrayal of an East Village folkie in the 2013 Coen brothers movie Inside Llewyn Davis was confirmation that there was more to the pop star than McDonalds-boosting funk-pop and Janet Jackson-attendant Superbowl controversies.

The pre-prepared monologue followed his Australian Open quarter-final defeat.

Larry Campbell has played with everyone from Bob Dylan to BB King. In advance of his Cork gig with his wife Teresa Williams, they tell Ed Power about their contrasting backgrounds.

Fifty years after Martin Luther King was assassinated, new museums and memorials are highlighting the civil rights movement, writes Isabel Conway, as she travels from Tennessee to Mississippi.

As nativity scenes take place in school halls around the country this week, we’ve been reminiscing about our tea towel wearing days.

Donald Trump has defended his Republican tax cut as a good deal for the middle class while boldly suggesting it could lead to explosive economic growth for the US.

Donald Trump has lashed out at two Republican senators who condemned him for "debasing" US politics.

A pair of senators from US president Donald Trump's own Republican Party have blistered him with criticism in a dramatic day of denunciation that laid bare a party at war with itself.

Donald Trump has engaged in a furious exchange of tweets and counter-tweets with a Republican senator, saying he "couldn't get elected dog catcher" while the congressman fired back that the president was "utterly untruthful".

The president cannot be tamed, so it is time to put the national interest ahead of party politics, says Nina L Khrushcheva.  

The strained relationship between President Donald Trump and US secretary of state Rex Tillerson came under renewed focus on today.

Irish Water is not the only water utility operating in a setting made complex by conflicting political and financial needs.

Latest: One person has died and eight others, including the shooter, have been injured in a church shooting in Tennessee, USA.

A paedophile in England who tricked scores of youngsters across the world into sending him nude selfies then blackmailed them into sexually abusing young relatives on camera has been jailed for 16 years.

Rescuers are continuing to search waterlogged neighbourhoods in Houston, Texas, as officials turn their attention to finding temporary housing for those in shelters in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Rescuers have begun a block-by-block search of tens of thousands of Houston homes looking for anyone - alive or dead - who might have been left behind in Harvey's floodwaters.

The flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey are beginning to drop across much of the Houston area, emergency officials said.

The National Hurricane Centre says Harvey is back on land after coming ashore early today just west of Cameron, Louisiana.

Tommy Barker reports on this quality, ‘almost unique’ Blarney offering which is all things great and small

Donald Trump has lashed out at members of his own party as his controversial response to white supremacist violence threatens to engulf his presidency.

‘An Inconvenient Truth’ might have made for depressing viewing, but Al Gore’s sequel sounds a note of optimism in the fight against climate change and those who are trying to scupper recovery, writes Helen Barlow

In closing arguments, Davidson County prosecutors alleged that former FBI agent Thomas Martens and his daughter Molly brutally bludgeoned Irish businessman Jason Corbett to death with a metal bat and a concrete paving brick and then concocted a story of self-defense to cover up their crime.

Thomas Martens, the man accused of murdering his son-in-law Jason Corbett, testified in court yesterday that, during the time of the Irishman’s marriage to his daughter, Molly Martens, Mr Corbett was not “his favourite person.”

US cable channel Discovery has agreed to buy Scripps Networks, the No 4 most watched US cable network, for $11.9 (€10bn) in a bet that uniting ownership of cable channels like Animal Planet and HGTV will help the company adapt to the changing television landscape.

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against Molly Corbett and her father, Thomas Martens, as they face trial on murder charges in the death of Jason Corbett.

Kings of Leon’s shaggy, old- school rock has turned out to be surprisingly durable.

A rapper whose concert in Little Rock, Arkansas, became the site of a shooting that left 28 people injured has been arrested on unrelated assault charges.

We bring you a round-up of all the latest news and reviews from the world of entertainment. 

At least 14 people have been killed in severe storms rolling across the US.

Elizabeth Thomas disappeared from her home near Columbia on March 13.

Two boys have been electrocuted by power lines downed during violent weather in Texas, officials said.

“Sorry, but if you are overweight, pedicures will be $45 due to service fees for pedicurists".

The boy then uttered his final words while Santa hugged him, and they were, “Santa, can you help me?”