AMERICANS — don’t you just love them? Actually, by and large, I do. There’s an ugly snootiness in some quarters in Ireland, and Europe more broadly, towards the US and its citizens which was never quite going to be eradicated by the election of Barack Obama. I have written as much before.

The presidential finale for George Bush includes a goodbye to Washington and a hello from fellow Texans.

More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.

Jessica Simpson fuelled reports she's dating Carrie Underwood's ex-boyfriend Tony Romo by introducing him to her grandparents at Thanksgiving.

Singer George Michael has taken John Lennon’s ’Imagine’ piano to New Orleans for the latest stop in a photographic tour of the US.

Ten Irish golfers still have their eyes on the big prize in US collegiate golf after the fields were set this week for the NCAA Regional championships.

Oklahoma City is marking the 12th anniversary of the bombing that killed 168 people by reaching out to victims of the Virginia Tech shootings and victims of violence everywhere.

Seamus Power collected his first collegiate win in grand style today by taking the individual title at the Atlantic Sun Conference championships.

BREAKAWAY Mormon leader Warren Jeffs has been added to the FBI’s list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives,” a move that caps law enforcement’s dramatic change of approach toward the polygamous group in recent years.

JUST before Christmas in 1996, an elderly farmer was awoken in the early hours of the morning. Pat Duggan lived alone in an isolated cottage near Claregalway in Co Galway.

Israeli police expect most Jewish settlers will resist evacuation from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and are girding for an array of extreme scenarios that include attacks on public figures, and threats of mass suicide, it was reported today.

LATE as always, but still greeted by cheers and screams of “Bill, we love you,” former US President Clinton opened the year’s hottest book tour with a marathon signing at a midtown Manhattan Barnes & Noble.

Convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols has been spared the death penalty by jurors who convicted him of 161 counts of murder but remained deadlocked over his sentence.

A STATE jury took just five hours to find Terry Nichols guilty of 161 counts of murder for the bombing that destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building — charges for which he could be sentenced to death.

Nearly a decade after the Oklahoma City bombing, a man was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out what was then the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.

Two-year-old Kimberly Martin fell asleep on a chapel bench during a rambling sermon about the end of the world.

A NIGHTCLUB erupted in a raging fire during a pyrotechnics display at a rock concert, killing at least 95 people and injuring more than 160 others as frantic mobs rushed to escape.

A day before his scheduled execution, convicted Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh was moved to a holding cell near the chamber where he will be put to death.

Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh said he was sorry 168 people died at his hands, but blamed the "bullying" US government.

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh has no regrets over the April 1995 atrocity which killed 168 people, 19 of them children, according to a letter published today.

Timothy McVeigh considered assassinating former US Attorney General Janet Reno, instead of carrying out the Oklahoma City bombing.