The Government is expected to receive public health advice, which has examined the possibility of easing restrictions for close contacts.

An American man with terminal heart disease was implanted with a genetically modified pig heart in a first-of-its-kind surgery, and three days later the patient is doing well, his doctors have reported.

The number of staff employed by Enterprise Ireland supported companies rose by 11,911 last year, despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile into the sea, South Korea's military said, increasing tensions less than a week after Pyongyang reported testing a hypersonic missile.

Five million residents of a central Chinese city have started home confinement in a new lockdown to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to state media.

The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, has died this morning in hospital in Italy.

The US reported 1.35 million new coronavirus infections yesterday, the highest daily total for any country in the world as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing.

The Deputy President and Registrar of NUI Galway has said he would be in favour of students sitting traditional leaving cert exams this year.

A South African court has charged a man suspected of starting a devastating fire that gutted South Africa's parliament with terrorism, adding to robbery and arson accusations, as he made his second appearance in court.

A body called the Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal has handed in its resignation to the Minister for Finance.

A number of birds in Dublin Zoo, Belfast Zoo and Fota Wildlife Park have been moved indoors due to cases of bird flu.

Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said that a contingent of Russia-led forces would begin leaving the country in two days, with the pull-out to take no more than ten days.

The United Nations has said it needed close to €4 billion in aid for Afghanistan in 2022 to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and offer the country a future after 40 years of suffering.

The United States is willing to drop two charges of perjury against disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell if a conviction for sex trafficking is allowed to stand, court documents showed yesterday.

Preliminary findings from two South African clinical trials suggest the Omicron coronavirus variant has a much higher rate of "asymptomatic carriage" than earlier variants, which could explain why it has spread so rapidly across the globe.

The US Mint has started rolling out quarters which feature late American author and activist Maya Angelou, the first black woman to appear on the coin.

Thousands of public servants will have their working hours reduced back to lower pre-austerity levels from 1 July, if a recommendation made by an independent body examining the issue is accepted by the Government.

A man has been arrested by gardaí investigating the disappearance of a Lithuanian woman over three years ago.

There have been 23,909 new cases of Covid-19 reported by the Department of Health, bringing the total number of cases reported by the department since the pandemic began past 1 million.

World number one Novak Djokovic has insisted that he is ready to compete in the Australian Open, after being released from Australian immigration detention.