In brief: Obama gets official Twitter account

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is embracing short-form communication. Twitter has a new @POTUS account.

For years, White House officials have used Twitter to communicate White House policy and occasional personal observations.

But Obama himself pretty much stayed out of the social media fray.

No longer.

With a frugal 92-character message – 48 short of maximum permitted – Obama on Monday declared: “Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.”

The account name stands for the common acronym used for President of the United States.

The White House said the tweets on that account will come exclusively from the president. The Obama-affiliated Organizing for Action group has a @BarackObama account and the White House has a handle, both mostly written by staff. Obama has on rare occasions used them, signing his personal messages with his initials.

Prince Charles will meet with Sinn Fein

DUBLIN – The Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party said its two senior figures will meet Prince Charles during his visit this week to Ireland in another groundbreaking event for peacemaking.

Charles and his wife, Camilla, are scheduled to arrive today in the western Irish city of Galway for a four-day visit that will take the British royal couple to Mullaghmore, a fishing village where his great-uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army in 1979.

Charles has visited the Republic of Ireland twice before, but this will be his first time in Mullaghmore – and his first direct contact with Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, shook hands with McGuinness in Belfast in 2012 and invited him to Windsor Castle last year.