Hundreds of thousands of civilians remained trapped and under fire in Ukrainian cities as officials hope a "humanitarian corridor" can be opened for those in besieged Mariupol. Follow for live updates.

Russian shelling hit civilian targets in central Ukraine's Dnipro city, as Moscow's troops edged closer to Kyiv, where officials said the capital was being transformed into a "fortress".

Two and a half million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded and another two million have been internally displaced by the war, the United Nations has said.

Carlow student Racheal Diyaolu has arrived safely back in Ireland after fleeing Ukraine and was met by her family in a tearful reunion at Dublin Airport late last night, after she landed on a flight from Frankfurt.

Two people have died, and a third person was injured, in a road crash in Co Roscommon in the early hours of this morning.

It's been six months since the Taliban swept across Afghanistan to seize power in recently vacated Kabul.

It is understood that the Government supported the fast-tracking of Ukraine's application to join the European Union during talks at an informal EU summit in France.

Today marks two years to the day since the World Health Organization first described Covid-19 as a pandemic.

Fuels for Ireland, the industry body for fuel suppliers and retailers, has written to Taoiseach Mícheál Martin to express its members' deep unhappiness at what it claims have been misleading statements about the sector

A northeastern Chinese city of nine million people was ordered to lock down, as authorities scramble to halt a fresh Covid-19 outbreak that has pushed nationwide case counts to their highest in two years.

"It's smarter to be free and to try to report something from abroad, than to sit in jail," says Tikhon Dziadko, editor in chief with Dozhd.

People abused as children in church and state run institutions in Northern Ireland will today get a formal apology from the Stormont Executive for the treatment to which they were subjected.

Police in Northern Ireland did not leak information to the media about the whereabouts of a senior Sinn Féin official turned police informant found murdered in Co Donegal.

US actor Jussie Smollett, one-time star of television drama Empire has been sentenced to 30 months probation and 150 days in jail for staging a hate crime against himself.

Two recent missile tests conducted by North Korea were of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, marking a "serious escalation" by Pyongyang, that will be punished with fresh sanctions, a senior US official has said.

Three men have appeared before a special sitting of Sligo District Court charged in connection with the aggravated burglary at the home of Tom Niland in Skreen in Sligo on 18 January last.

A Mariupol native who has lived in Cork for the last five years was devastated to see the 'apocalyptic' conditions after Russian bombs struck the hospital where she was born, explains Conor McMorrow.

The Government's move to block the expansion of the Russian Embassy on Dublin's Orwell Road has come into sharp focus with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, explains Louise Byrne.

European and international airlines and airports have called for an end to pandemic measures such as proof of vacccination and mask wearing for European domestic flights

An obstetrician and gynaecologist at Kyiv's perinatal centre has said doctors have been left delivering babies within bomb shelters, and that newborns have lost lives due to the ongoing Russian invasion.