NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina lay a wreath at the memorial to the victims of the Birmingham bombings on the first day of their official visit to Birmingham. PA Wire / PA Images PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images

• The nurses’ strike has been suspended after an intervention by the Labour Court. The union suspended the upcoming strikes at the request of the Court to consider the wide-ranging recommendations.
• Gardaí have recovered four stolen limestone statues including two depicting William of Orange and Oliver Cromwell, which were stolen in Charleville, Cork, in 2011.
• Health Minister Simon Harris has said the protest that happened outside his home over the weekend was “plain and simple intimidation”.
• Activists have called for people in Ireland to take part in mass walkouts on International Women’s Day this year against gender-based violence and pay gap. 
• Days after DJ Bobby Ryan went missing gardaí searched the farmland where he would be found almost two years later, but found no evidence of what happened to him, a murder trial has heard.
• The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has recalled several batches of tea and coffee slimming products over ‘unauthorised’ health claims.
• A man injured during an alleged assault in Co Kerry in the early hours of Sunday morning has died in hospital.
• A UK resident who repeatedly travelled to Dublin to have sex with a teenage girl who he claimed he was in love with has been jailed for four and a half years.

WORLD

Queen Elizabeth II boards a train at King's Lynn railway station in Norfolk, as she returns to London after spending the Christmas period at Sandringham House in north Norfolk. Joe Giddens via PA Images Joe Giddens via PA Images

#BREXIT: British Prime Minister Theresa May has rejectedLabour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to deal with Brexit closing off another possible way that a no-deal Brexit could be avoided.

#PROMISES: Hungary’s government is greatly increasing financial aid and subsidies for families with several children, the country’s prime minister said. 

#INDIA: At least 99 people have died and scores have been hospitalised in northern India after drinking toxic alcohol, triggering a crackdown against bootleggers, officials said today.

PARTING SHOT

Authorities in the Russian archipelago of Novaya Zemlya have declared a state of emergency after more than 50 polar bears were spotted in the region.

Comments are closed due to ongoing legal proceedings in one or more of the above cases.