The head of the Health Service Executive has said the country is "at the point of strong momentum" with between 220,000 and 240,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines being administered this week alone.

EU leaders will try to find unity on ways to fight poverty and promote equality in Europe after the pandemic, but the 27 member states remain deeply divided.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party scored an upset victory in a Labour stronghold, after Britain held its first major electoral test since Brexit and the coronavirus crisis.

Brexit is a powerful force, certainly in Hartlepool, where Britain's Conservative Party has taken the constituency for the first time since it was created in 1974.

Most debris from a Chinese rocket will be burned up on re-entry and is highly unlikely to cause any harm, China's foreign ministry has said.

Police in the UK have launched an appeal to identify a man whose body was recovered from a canal in London in 1981.

More than 30 sick climbers have been evacuated from the foot of Mount Everest, raising fears that coronavirus may scupper a hoped-for bumper season on the world's highest mountain.

A man in Florida has been accused of stealing not one, but two police vehicles; the second during a chase after he drove off in the first.

Germany will allow AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine to be administered to adults of all ages and aims to offer 12 to 18-year-olds a vaccine by the end of August as it seeks to speed up its rollout, Health Minister Jens Spahn has said.

Australia is likely to remain shut to visitors until late 2022, the country's trade and tourism minister said, as another global coronavirus surge smashed hopes of a quick reopening.

India reported another record daily rise in coronavirus cases, bringing total new cases for the week to 1.57 million, as the country's vaccination rate falls dramatically due to a lack of supplies and transport problems.

The Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris will no longer be writing for the newspaper, its editor has said.

The Oireachtas Transport and Communications Committee has written to senior Government members and health officials, calling for rapid antigen testing to be used to re-establish air travel.

Counting has started in the Scottish Parliament election, with more than half of the constituencies expected to declare later today.

Japan's government is set to extend a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas by about three weeks until the end of May to curb a surge in coronavirus cases just months before the start of the Tokyo Olympics.

Coldplay have launched their new single Higher Power on board the International Space Station (ISS) with the help of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Measures aimed at preventing institutional investors from bulk-buying large numbers of residential homes in new housing estates could be implemented before the end of July, according to Government sources.

The EU's food watchdog has said that a widely-used additive, known as the artificial colouring E171 on food labels, should "no longer be considered safe" for consumption.

The Chief Medical Officer has said it is time for people to "feel hopeful" and to start planning their summer.

A 22-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a 76-year-old man who was attacked with an axe at his home in Dublin last week.