NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Rowers in a boat on the river Liffey. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

• A man was charged with the murder of 28-year-old Brazilian national Bruna Fonseca, who was found dead in a flat in Liberty Street in Cork city centre on New Year’s Day.
• The Mater Hospital in Dublin appealed to members of the public, where possible, to avoid its emergency department.
• Two men were arrested following a stabbing incident at Hotel Killarney in Co Kerry.
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said an inquiry the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic should not be about “pointing fingers” or “ascribing blame”.
• Two leading psychiatrists warned that children’s hospitals are dealing with an “astronomical” number of self-harm presentations.
• A man was arrested in Cork city after a 59-year-old man almost bled to death after he sustained a slash wound to the head on New Year’s Day.
• Two men were arrested in relation to a serious assault that occurred in Dublin city last night.
• New figures from the Department of Education showed that almost 14,000 Ukrainian children and teenagers have enrolled in Irish schools since the start of Russian invasion of their homeland.

INTERNATIONAL

Anatolii Kaharlytskyi, 73, stands near his house, heavily damaged after a Russian attack in Kyiv. Renata Brito / PA Renata Brito / PA / PA

#UKRAINE Russia said 63 soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian strike on Russian-controlled territory in a bloody New Year’s weekend for both sides of the conflict.

#LYING IN STATE Tens of thousands of people paid their respects to former pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, at the start of three days of lying-in-state at St Peter’s Basilica before his funeral.

#GRAFT SCANDAL The European Parliament announced its chief, Roberta Metsola, has launched “an urgent procedure” to lift the immunity of two MEPs amid a corruption scandal linked to Qatar.

#EXPLOSION The death toll from an explosion of a tanker truck on Christmas Eve near eastern Johannesburg rose to 34.

#GOLD COAST Two helicopters collided in an Australian tourist hotspot, killing four passengers and critically injuring three others.

PARTING SHOT

Fans line up to pay their last respects to the late Brazilian soccer great Pele who lives in state at Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos, Brazil. Matias Delacroix / PA Matias Delacroix / PA / PA

Mourners began paying their respects to Pele in a solemn procession past his coffin at the Vila Belmiro Stadium in his home town of Santos today.

The Brazilian football great died on Thursday after a battle with cancer. He was 82.

Pele’s coffin was placed on the field where he scored scored some of the best goals of his career. Mourners walked past his casket in the 16,000-seat stadium outside Sao Paulo.

Vila Belmiro was decorated with Brazilian flags and No 10 shirts that became popular after Pele started wearing them for Santos and Brazil.

The stands filled up with bouquets of flowers placed by mourners and sent by clubs and star players — Neymar and Ronaldo among them — from around the world as loudspeakers played a song named Eu Sou Pele (I Am Pele) that was recorded by the Brazilian himself.

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