Four arrested after €1.1m in drugs seized
Four men been arrested following the seizure of drugs worth €1.1m during an operation in West Dublin.
The planned operation was carried out in the Clondalkin area yesterday evening.
Gardaí stopped and searched two cars as well as an apartment and around 12kgs of MDMA powder and 3kgs of heroin were seized.
Four men, aged in their 30s to 60s, were arrested and being held at Clondalkin and Blanchardstown Garda stations.
Higgins praises role of Defence Forces during Centenary events
President Michael D Higgins has praised the role of the Defence Forces in the State's commemoration programme for 1916.
Speaking at the Curragh Camp in Kildare, Mr Higgins said their contribution to these events, ceremonial and symbolic, were an impressive and inspiring example of all that Ireland can be proud of.
The President unveiled commemorative stones dedicated to the seven signatories of the Proclamation. He also unveiled a photograph which captured three key moments of this year's events.
Blas summer school to mark 21st year next summer
The international Irish traditional Blas summer school is to team up with the Willie Clancy Summer school to offer another week of workshops and classes at its annual gathering in Milltown Malbay, Co Clare next July.
The Blas summer school is run by the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick.
It will mark its 21st year of attracting musicians, singers and dancers who are familiar with the Irish traditions and want to extend their knowledge and repertoire.
The Duchas an Cheoil class will introduce students to the essential elements of Irish traditional music, dance and song. The emphasis will be on creating an awareness of the social and historical context in which the musical tradition was created.
Over 3,500 fathers have taken paternity benefit - Varadkar
Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar has said paternity benefit is long overdue in Ireland and that since its introduction two months ago, 3,575 fathers have taken it.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1, the minister said that 272 of these are self employed.
He said the two weeks paid leave is a legal entitlement and encouraged more to avail of the benefit.
Facebook developing artificial intelligence to flag offensive live videos
Facebook Inc is working on automatically flagging offensive material in live video streams, building on a growing effort to use artificial intelligence to monitor content, according to the company's director of applied machine learning.
The social media company has been embroiled in a number of content moderation controversies this year, from facing international outcry after removing an iconic Vietnam War photo due to nudity, to allowing the spread of fake news on its site.
Facebook has historically relied mostly on users to report offensive posts, which are then checked by Facebook employees against company "community standards."
Decisions on especially thorny content issues that might require policy changes are made by top executives at the company.
Dog nose inspires better explosives 'sniffer'
Struck by the legendary sniffing skills of man's best friend, scientists in the United States fitted a dog-inspired plastic nose to an explosives detector, and reported that it worked much better.
With the prosthetic nose, and programmed to take multiple "sniffs" of the air rather a single, long suction, the machine was 16 times more sensitive in detecting molecules in the air, the team reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
"By mimicking the way a dog sniffs, we can improve the performance of commercial trace vapour detection systems," study co-author Matthew Staymates of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told AFP.
He said: "Our findings suggest that the next generation of ... detection systems may benefit from lessons learned from the canine." This may improve detection of anything from explosives, narcotics, disease-causing pathogens, perhaps even cancer.
Tunisia confirms outbreak of H5 bird flu
Tunisia has reported an outbreak of the highly contagious H5 bird flu virus among wild birds in the north of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health said, citing information from the Tunisian agriculture ministry.
The outbreak was confirmed after testing of 30 wild birds found dead last month in the Ichkeul Natural Park, it said.
"Tunisia is located in the main migratory corridor for wildbirds going to Africa from Europe during winter migration.Migration is ongoing and this viral strain must have been carried over by migrating birds," the OIE said.
Several countries in Europe and the Middle East have found cases of highly contagious bird flu in the past few weeks, while the outbreaks in Asia have led to large-scale culling of poultry in South Korea and Japan.
