In September 2005, the course of Declan Dunlea's life was altered forever. At the height of the Celtic Tiger, he ran a successful oil and fuel distribution business called Core Fuels. He lived with his family in a beautiful five-bedroom period home overlooking Monkstown Bay in Co Cork, and spent his spare time renovating vintage cars. "After I left school, I started my own business as a coal merchant and did that for 15 years," he said.
The golden era of night trains had, it was previously assumed, gone for good amid the rise of low-cost, short-haul flights. But the new environmental imperatives suggested that they could be a glamorous part of a greener future, delivering a climate impact that was 28 times less than flying. The European Commission enthusiastically identified a plethora of potential new routes that it judged could be economically viable.
It is just before dawn, the December temperature a couple of degrees above freezing; time for troop rotations to start across Ukraine's 750 mile front. A crew of four from Da Vinci Wolves battalion are loading up into an M113 armoured personnel carrier at a secret location ready to be driven out to a safe point. From there they will walk to their position and remain on the front for 10 or 12 days.
Gardaí investigating the murder of Michael Gaine on his farm in Co Kerry almost a year ago are putting "enormous effort" into solving the crime, with hopes pinned on crime scene analysis by US forensic experts returning positive leads.
The European Commission has launched a fresh consultation into open source, setting out its ambitions for Europe's developer communities to go beyond propping up US tech giants' platforms. In a "Call for Evidence" published this week, Brussels says the EU's reliance on non-European technology suppliers (read: US tech giants) has become a strategic liability, limiting choice, weakening competitiveness, and creating supply chain risks across everything from cloud services to critical infrastructure.
Merz has been under pressure following the US intervention in Venezuela. His reaction to the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by the US military, was somewhat restrained and vague. The German chancellor described it as a "complex situation," also from a legal perspective, which the German government would now carefully examine. That was all. The words "breach of international law" did not pass the lips of the chancellor or his spokespeople.
Elon Musk said on Saturday that social media platform X will open to the public its new algorithm, including all code for organic and advertising post recommendations, in seven days. "This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed," he said in his X post. Earlier this week, the European Commission decided to extend a retention order sent to X last year, which related to algorithms and dissemination of illegal content, prolonging it to the end of 2026, spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters on Thursday.
For years, Route 66 served as the main artery for westward migration-until the faster Interstate Highway System, including I-40, assumed that role. Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985. A couple of years later, a group of Seligman locals, spearheaded by barber Angel Delgadillo, formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona to recognize the cultural significance of the thoroughfare and preserve its legacy.
As I discovered while researching my latest novel, subaquatic sabotage could be easily carried out and we are woefully underprepared The events of the past few weeks - including ­Donald Trump's threats to ­Greenland, the US seizure of a Russian-registered tanker after its encroachment on Irish waters and the severing of ­telecoms cables in the Baltic - have all come together to highlight one of the great vulnerabilities of contemporary Ireland: the fragile cables that connect us all.
The incident took place on the N22 near Dromadeesirt at around 6.40pm on Saturday. The man, one of the drivers, was pronounced dead at the scene. His body has been removed to the local mortuary where a postmortem will take place. The other driver, a man in his 30s, was taken to University Hospital Kerry for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. No other injuries were reported following the incident.
A guard at a construction site near a 2026 Winter Olympic venue in the mountain resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo died during a freezing overnight shift, authorities have confirmed. Italy's infrastructure minister, Matteo Salvini, called for a full investigation into the circumstances of the 55-year-old worker's death. Italian media reported that the death occurred on Thursday while the worker was on duty at a construction site near Cortina's ice arena. Temperatures that night plunged to -12C (10.4F).
Translator who broke the rules to become decades-long friend of Guido Nasi tells of their relationship and the lives destroyed by one brutal act
In a naturalistic rendition of David vs. Goliath, a 28-pound Reeves's muntjac named Tata, a small deer species native to Asia, took on Maruśka, a 1.7-ton female rhinoceros, in a fierce head-to-head at the Wroclaw Zoo in Poland. A video that's gone viral on social media shows the miniature deer fiercely standing its ground and charging at the far more massive rhino, clashing into its horn-tipped snout with tiny antlers.
This competition doesn't deserve these two. Once again, in the depth of rugby's bleak midwinter, they served up a game for the ages that was settled by a kick at the death.
Gale-force winds and storms barrelled through northern Europe, claiming more lives, causing travel mayhem, shutting schools, and cutting power to hundreds of thousands in freezing temperatures. Some 50 flights were cancelled at London's Heathrow airport, affecting thousands of passengers. Air travel was disrupted across Europe from the Czech Republic to Moscow, where over 300 flights were cancelled at four airports serving the Russian capital.
Thousands of Irish farmers have taken to the streets to protest against a trade agreement between the European Union and the South American bloc Mercosur, a day after a majority of EU member states gave provisional approval to the long-negotiated accord. In the central town of Athlone, tractors streamed onto roads on Saturday as farmers from across Ireland gathered to demonstrate against the deal, holding placards reading Stop EU-Mercosur and shouting slogans accusing European leaders of sacrificing their interests.
Mr Boland told the Irish Independent it was "an extraordinary honour" to meet with the Pope, who he said expressed empathy across the range of topics they discussed. "I met a very human Pope, a very human person, a person who seriously cares about people in disadvantage," he said. "He clearly had empathy with my mandate, which is to bring civil society to the heart of Europe in terms of policy making."
The Oreshnik missile struck close to Ukraine's border with Poland, a NATO member. Russia fired its hypersonic Oreshnik missile overnight at Ukraine, Moscow confirmed on Friday, striking a city barely miles away from the Ukrainian border with Poland, at a time when efforts to forge a peace deal are sputtering. Some experts say that Moscow carried out this attack to intimidate Ukraine's European and Western allies.
And, as a recent survey by European ferry operator DFDS found, hot chocolate is the winter drink 64 percent of British people look forward to most when traveling, ahead of mulled wine at No. 2 by a mile at 31 percent. In fact, nearly nine in 10 Brits (87 percent) said they make a point of trying the local hot chocolate when visiting a new city.
