AT Butch McGuire’s bar in downtown Chicago early on Thursday afternoon a man walks in and asks for a Bloody Mary – and Natasha’s jug.

An Irish student remains critical but stable in a US hospital after being attacked with a baseball bat.

A 23-year-old Irish student is in a critical condition in a Chicago hospital after being attacked in the early hours of yesterday morning.

PRESIDENT-elect Barack Obama called for Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to resign yesterday, hours after the embattled governor reported for work amid charges he plotted to sell Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

Middleweight Darren Sutherland will bid to become the third Irish boxer to make it through to the semi-finals of the 2008 Olympics Games at the Workers Indoor Arena in Beijing at around 1pm today.

Irish captain Ken Egan joined compatriot Paddy Barnes on the winners' podium at the Beijing Olympics after he outclassed Brazilian light heavyweight Washington Silva (8-0) over four rounds today.

IRISH boxers will be targeting half a dozen gold medals at the European Union Championships in Poland today.

Newly-qualified Irish 2008 Olympians, Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland and John Joe Joyce will be targeting treble gold today just 24 hours after securing their places at the 2008 Olympics at the second and final Olympic qualifier for European boxers in Athens, Greece on Friday afternoon.

Irish captain Ken Egan, Darren Sutherland and John Joe Joyce will all be in action today just one bout away from booking their tickets for Beijing at the final Olympic qualification tournament for European boxers at the Olympic Centre of Nikaia in Athens, Greece.

The 2008 National Senior Championships will begin on Tuesday, January 8 and run over four days before concluding on Friday, January 11, at the National Stadium in Dublin.

World and three times European lightweight (60Kg) champion Katie Taylor claimed yet another victory after stopping Canadian Katie Dunn at the University of Illinois in Chicago last night.

Heavyweight John Sweeney produced one of the best performances of his career to advance to the last 16 of the 2007 World Championships and Olympic qualifiers following a round four stoppage of Serbian Branco Srdic at the University of Illinois in Chicago in the early hours of this morning.

John Joe Joyce bowed out of the AIBA World Championships and Olympic qualifiers at the University of Illinois in Chicago after he lost his preliminary round light welterweight clash to Hungary's Gyula Kate in the early hours of this morning.

World lightweight champion Katie Taylor could be in the ring in Vejle Denmark this evening to begin her defence of the European 60Kg title she has won for the last two years in a row.

Middleweight Darren Sutherland will take no further part in sparring sessions at the Irish squad's training camp in France after sustaining a facial injury last night.

THE IRISH boxing team have taken their preparations for the world championships to a new level at a training camp in France.

COULD Ireland’s herd of 6.53 million cattle provide the solution to the country’s over-dependence on fuel imports? The question has arisen after reports from the US suggested that the secret to cheaper gas in that country could lie in cow dung.

TENS of thousands of immigrants spilled into the streets in dozens of cities across America yesterday in peaceful protests that some compared to the movements led by the Rev Martin Luther King Jr and farm-labour organiser Caesar Chavez.