The Department of Education has revised a controversial instruction issued to schools last week, which directed that older children should be refused entry to primary schools if they decline to wear a mask without medical reason.

Representatives from the hospitality sector will meet Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Minister Catherine Martin today amid calls for adequate supports for businesses affected by the latest Covid-19 restrictions.

Western counties - from Galway down to Cork - will be the worst affected areas when Storm Barra lands in Ireland from 6am tomorrow morning, according to a Met Éireann spokesperson.

A Myanmar court has jailed ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi for four years for inciting dissent against the military and breaching Covid rules, a spokesman for the ruling junta confirmed.

A €9 million fund to provide free antigen tests for college students has been announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London, which formally ended the War of Independence, setting the stage for British withdrawal from most of Ireland.

Another pandemic will threaten human lives and could be "more contagious" and "more lethal", one of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine inventors has warned.

South Africa is preparing its hospitals for more admissions, as the Omicron coronavirus variant pushes the country into a fourth wave of Covid-19 cases, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.

American politicians should stop calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics to avoid hurting bilateral ties and China will take "countermeasures" if necessary, China's foreign ministry said on Monday.

The high-profile case of a man charged with abducting a four-year-old girl from a remote Australian campsite was delayed today after his lawyer won an adjournment.

European Union states spent nearly €200bn on defence in 2020, the most since records began in 2006, but joint investment by governments fell, the European Defence Agency has said.

French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour was left lightly injured after being assaulted at his first campaign rally yesterday where fighting also broke out during his speech in front of thousands of supporters.

AIB has launched a new €500m Social Housing Fund which will help provide 3,000 homes over the next two to three years.

The Taoiseach has said that it is now known that people who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 have had a "disproportionate" effect on Ireland's health service and intensive care beds.

RTÉ is to contact the gardaí to try to establish if the convicted paedophile and former employee Kieran Creaven used RTÉ equipment in his abuse of children or committed any offences on RTÉ time.

Belgian police fired water cannon today to disperse protesters opposed to compulsory health measures against the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis has returned to the island of Lesbos, the migration flashpoint he first visited in 2016, to plead for better treatment of refugees as attitudes towards immigrants harden across Europe.

Bob Dole, who battled back from being severely wounded in World War II to become a five-term US senator and the Republican Party's 1996 presidential nominee, died today at the age of 98.

Five times more Covid-19 testing each day is needed in Ireland to try to control the spread of the virus, according to a virologist at UCD.