Church of England's first woman bishop consecrated
The Church of England’s first woman bishop is being consecrated at York Minster.
Rev Libby Lane will be the eighth Bishop of Stockport.
She was named as the new bishop last month in a historic move ending centuries of all-male leadership in the Church.
The announcement came a month after the General Synod formally adopted legislation allowing women bishops.
The bells of the Minster rang as the congregation of nearly 2,000 people waited silently for the service to begin.
Roscommon County Council strike averted
The possibility of hundreds of staff of Roscommon County Council going on strike has been averted following agreement by staff to accept proposals by the Labour Relations Commission.
Around 200 engineering and outdoor staff voted today to accept LRC proposals tabled last week in an ongoing dispute between staff and management over changes to working arrangements.
Kurdish fighters retake town of Kobane
Kurdish fighters have retaken the Syrian town of Kobane from Islamic State militants after nearly four months of fighting.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says Kurdish fighters have taken full control of the town near the Turkish border.
Kurdish forces have been backed by near daily US-led airstrikes around the town and supported by Iraqi Peshmerga fighters.
500 miners trapped in east Ukraine coal mine
Nearly 500 coal miners in Ukraine's war-torn east were trapped after their pit lost power when a shell hit a regional electric substation.
The accident occurred in rebel-controlled Donetsk city's Zasyadko coal mine - one of eastern Europe's largest, where the same type of incident briefly trapped 300 miners on 11 January.
"When the power went out, there were 496 miners underground," a Donetsk region emergencies ministry official said.
"Right now, we are making preparations to bring them to safety."
42 civilian immigration officers appointed
Forty-two civilian immigration officers have been appointed to the Immigration Service today.
The appointments are part of a Department of Justice programme announced last September to "civilianise" immigration facilities currently being undertaken by gardaí.
The 42 new recruits will be assigned to Dublin Airport on border control duties following the completion of their training.
The Department says gardaí will continue to provide core policing functions at the airport.
Breast cancer information app launched by CUH
A free app which answers the top 50 most searched for questions about breast cancer has been launched by Cork University Hospital.
It was developed in response to research which showed that health literary rates are low in Ireland and lower literary rates means people are more likely to miscalculate their risk of breast cancer.
Speaking about the app, Consultant Surgeon Mark Corrigan said as much as 90% of medical information on the internet is inaccurate or difficult to read. He said the FYI: Breast Cancer App was designed to explain the facts, and dispel the myths.
The app, which was funded by CUH Charity, was developed in conjunction with the National Adult Literary Agency (NALA) and the Department of Computer Science & School of Nursing and Midwifery at University College Cork.
Sligo man dies in Thailand
The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that it is providing consular assistance to the family of an Irish man who died in Thailand.
68-year-old John Fintan Brett from Sligo was found dead early yesterday morning in a house in the provincial capital of Buriram, about 220 miles north east of Bangkok.
It is understood that police have said Mr Brett died as a result of a fall but local media is reporting that friends of Mr Brett in Thailand have queries regarding the circumstances of his death.
Mr Brett was a former supervisor at Summerhill College in Sligo and was a regular visitor to Thailand where he spent some months at a time.
Obama recommends extended wilderness zone in Alaska
US President Barack Obama says he will recommend that a large area of the state of Alaska be designated as wilderness.
President Obama wants to set aside five million hectares of public land in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
This means the oil-rich area would be sealed off from roads and development, including drilling.
The refuge is home to countless species, including polar bears and grey wolves, as well as over 200 species of birds and 42 types of fish.
Kerry arrives in Nigeria calling for 'peaceful elections'
Dozens are reported dead after the Nigerian Islamist Boko Haram fighters attacked the strategically important north-eastern city of Maiduguri.
The Nigerian military said it repelled the attack and a curfew remains in place in the city.
US Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile has arrived in Nigeria to call for peaceful elections next month which he says need to set "a new standard".
The vote looks set to be the closest since the end of military rule 15 years ago.
Warm ocean melting East Antarctica's largest glacier
The largest glacier in East Antarctica, containing ice equivalent to a six-metre rise in global sea levels, is melting due to warm ocean water, Australian scientists said.
The 120km long Totten Glacier, which is more than 30km wide, had been thought to be in an area untouched by warmer currents.
But a just-returned voyage to the frozen region found the waters around the glacier were warmer than expected and likely melting the ice from below.
The melt rate of glaciers in the fastest-melting part of Antarctica has tripled over the past decade, analysis of the past 21 years showed, according to research published last month.
Grenade discovered in Cork
A historic but viable grenade has been made safe by an Army bomb disposal team in County Cork.
The device was found during excavation work on a house in Aghada.
The army bomb disposal carried out a controlled explosion last night and the area was declared safe.
The Defence Forces say the grenade was early 20th century in origin and similar to ones used during the War of Independence, the Civil War and World War I and II.
