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

IRELAND

The scene of a fatal stabbing incident at Brownsbarn Estate in Dublin Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• The government recommended that the Ireland vs Italy Six Nations Game should not go ahead due to ongoing fears over the coronavirus.
• Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin agreed to meet again after holding talks about the possibility of forming a Government.
• A man was found guilty of murdering retired grandmother Patricia O’Connor, whose remains were found scattered across the Dublin and Wicklow mountains.
• A woman was arrested after a man was fatally stabbed in south-west Dublin this morning.
• Three members of the Defence Forces deployed with the United Nations in Mali were injured after a device exploded close to their convoy.
• A school in Co Wicklow cancelled a parent/teacher meeting as a precaution due to fears about the coronavirus.
• Three siblings who claimed their family had to abandon their home due to illnesses allegedly caused by a nearby windfarm secured a €225,000 settlement.
• The first case of rubella in Ireland in more than a decade was confirmed at a company on the northside of Cork city.
• Students called on the University of Limerick to reverse its decision to add a second bed to some of the single rooms in its accommodation.

INTERNATIONAL

Choristers from Winchester Cathedral walk to the race start ahead of the Shrove Tuesday pancake race PA PA

#COVID-19: Coronavirus in Italy spread south to Tuscany and Sicily, while Switzerland, Croatia, Austria and mainland Spain also reporting their first cases.

#SEX ABUSE SCANDAL: Senior Lord David Steel quit the Liberal Democrats and announced his retirement from the House of Lords in the wake of a new report into historical child sexual abuse in the UK.

#RED LINES: European ministers signed off on Brussels’ red lines for the forthcoming post-Brexit trade talks with the UK.

#INQUIRY: Opera singer Placido Domingo was accused of sexual harassment by more than two dozen people as part of an investigation into his behaviour.

PARTING SHOT

Concerns over Covid-19 in Europe have been increasing in the last few days, particularly as the virus spreads across the continent.

Analogies between the coronavirus and other illnesses like SARS and Swine Flu have been drawn, but how exactly does it compare? This graph charts the growth of similar viruses:

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