EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of the latest news stories, as well as the bits and pieces you may have missed during the day.

• The Defence Forces have been deployed to help control and extinguish bog, forest and gorse fires which have broken out in the north-west and are affecting parts of Donegal, Galway and Mayo. A number of homes in Dungloe were evacuated earlier today as the flames spread and some roads have been closed due to poor visibility.
• The UN is to withdraw all of its international staff from the Libyan capital Tripoli following an attack on its offices there.
• Michael D Higgins has launched his presidential election campaign and is seeking the nomination of the Labour Party. Meanwhile, Dragon’s Den star Sean Gallagher is reportedly preparing to launch his own bid for the presidency – as an independent candidate.
• A priest serving in the Archdiocese of Tuam in Co Galway has been suspended pending an investigation into an allegation made against him which dates back to the 80s.
• French investigators said today that a flight data recorder from the June 2009 Air France plane crash off the coast of Brazil has been located. Investigators are hoping to discover the cause of the crash which killed all 228 passengers and crew. Three Irish women returning from a holiday in Brazil were among those killed.
• Chernobyl remembered, political protests, and chadori shopping in Kabul: look back over the main events and most striking images of the past week with TheJournal.ie‘s gallery.
• Irish undertakers are importing oversized coffins from the US to cope with increasing obesity levels in Ireland, according to a report in today’s Sunday Times.
• Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, has accused the Taliban of using a 12-year-old boy as a suicide bomber as the militant group begins its spring offensive.
• New research reported in the Telegraph suggests that people who are left handed are more affected by fear than those who are right handed. Psychologists observed people who had watched an eight-minute clip from Silence of the Lambs and found that those who were left handed suffered more of the subtle symptoms associated with post traumatic stress.
• The launch of the Endeavour space shuttle has been delayed again. NASA says technicians will need a few days to replace and test a switch box in the engine compartment of the vehicle.
• Dublin pulled off an historic victory over Kilkenny today, to take the county’s first Hurling League title since 1939.
• US President Barack Obama took the opportunity to poke fun at his would-be Republican challenger Donald Trump at a public function last night. Although Obama’s jibes about Trump were fairly well received by the billionaire, he was somewhat less impressed with the Seth Meyers routine which followed:

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