Transmission levels of Covid-19 remain "frankly far too high" for schools to reopen, the HSE's Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry has said.

EU leaders have expressed grave concern over the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus and their potential impact on the pandemic in Europe.

Measures to help students with autism and special needs are to be introduced at 23 higher education institutions at a cost of €5.4m.

The new affordable housing scheme should be opened up to some of the country's 220,000 divorced and separated people, according to a support group.

The Central Bank has forecast that growth in the economy will pick up in the second half of this year, if there is a successful roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

While remote learning during the current lockdown may be working better for some, it still presents challenges for many secondary school students.

Google has threatened to block Australians from using its search service unless the government changed landmark legislation to make it pay news outlets for their content.

Difficulties with the Northern Ireland Protocol were predicted months ago, Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster said.

Before he returned to Russia, opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his supporters had anticipated he would be arrested and planned to force the Kremlin to release him by staging repeated protests, a close ally has said.

Rescuers believe it could take at least another two weeks to free miners trapped underground in eastern China, dashing hopes of an imminent retrieval for a group that has already spent 12 days underground after an explosion.

The Japanese Prime Minister has said he is determined to host the Tokyo Olympic Games, which are scheduled to begin on 23 July.

Germany has recorded more than 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, the Robert Koch Institute disease control centre has said.

Republicans in the US Senate have asked Democrats to put off the start of former president Donald Trump's impeachment trial until mid-February, to give him time to prepare a defence against charges of inciting insurrection.

US President Joe Biden has said the US death toll from Covid-19 will probably top 500,000 next month, painting a grim picture of what he said will be a difficult battle.

Of the eight people due to be sentenced in a case relating to the deaths of 39 migrants, four are Irish, writes Prime Time's Barry Cummins.

Irish Olympian Jerry Kiernan has died at the age of 67.

Northern Ireland's coronavirus lockdown restrictions have been extended to 5 March and there are suggestions the measures could ultimately continue until Easter in early April.

A 53-year-old man has been sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison, with two years suspended, for coercive control, intimidation and multiple assaults on his former partner over a two-year period.

Intensive care units are coming close to capacity as the numbers being admitted for critical care continue to increase.