Negotiations aimed at restoring power-sharing at Stormont in Northern Ireland are due to get under way later.
The Tánaiste Simon Coveney and Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith spent New Years Day in Belfast for informal discussions ahead of the meeting.
The parties have a deadline of January 13th to get a deal.
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The rise in house prices has flatlined.
The MyHome.ie-Davy Property Report for the last three months of 2019 shows there was less than a 1% rise.
In Dublin, there has been no growth in the past 12 months.
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A "tourist leave zone" has been declared on Australia's east-coast due to wildfires.
Forecasters are predicting more high winds and raging temperatures.
Holidaymakers will have 48 hours to now leave parts of the state of Victoria, while people have estimated that half a billion animals are dead.
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There has been a mild downturn in the manufacturing sector.
An AIB survey shows a further deterioration in business conditions in December.
Among the key contributing factors the report says was poor performance of exports.
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An artificial intelligence programme has been developed which can detect breast cancer better than clinical experts.
The system from Google Health can identify the disease from mammograms with fewer false positives and negatives than radiologists.
The study showed the AI system could identify cancers with a similar degree of accuracy to radiologists, while reducing the number of false positive results.
