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

IRELAND

Members of the Burke family Ammi Burke, father Sean Burke, mother Martina Burke, and Isaac Burke leaving Cloverhill District Court this afternoon after the hearing of Simeon Burke (not pictured) who is charged with breach of peace in connection with an incident in Court of Appeal RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

• A British Coast Guard aircraft was called in to assist Irish authorities in a rescue 120 miles off the South West Coast. 
• Ryanair has said it could take a financial hit after the airline was removed from the websites of a raft of online travel agents.
• The death has taken place of well known retired Garda Murder Squad member Detective Inspector Gerry O’Carroll.
• Sean Burke, the father of jailed former teacher Enoch Burke, has appeared in court today, accused of assaulting a female garda during an incident at the Four Courts last year.
• The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has called on the government to campaign for the inclusion of a definition of rape in a new EU directive.
• This year will see house prices continue to rise, estate agency business DNG has forecast.

INTERNATIONAL

Firefighters walk near a fallen building following earthquakes in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#OLYMPIAN South Africa’s ex-Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius will face a ban on talking to the media when he is released on parole later this week, almost 11 years after he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, prison authorities have said.

#NEW YEAR’S ATTACK A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in the UK on suspicion of murder after a teenager was killed while waiting to watch New Year’s Eve fireworks.

#MIDDLE EAST Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah has warned Israel against waging war on Lebanon, a day after a strike blamed on Israel killed Hamas’s number two in the group’s Beirut stronghold.

PARTING SHOT

Dr. Eamon Doyle (left), Dr. Joseph Botting (centre) and Dr. Lucy Muir (right) with the new fossil sponges discovered near the Cliffs of Moher

A 315-million-year-old fossil has been found near the Cliffs of Moher in what scientists call an “exceptional” discovery.

The sponge, named Cyathophycus balori, dates back to a time when the Atlantic Ocean had not even started to form and what is now Co Clare was part of an earlier sea, located near the Equator.

Pictured are the scientists that discovered and researched the fossil.