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

IRELAND

Gardai at work in the warehouse structure outside Ashbourne in County Meath where a large amount of drugs were discovered. Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

• Gardaí have seized cannabis and cocaine worth up to €7 million after raiding two premises in Ashbourne, Meath.
• The Department of Education was ordered to cut down on lavish expenditure after it spent €13,000 on a retirement party with an ice sculpture among the expenses.
• Families of those who have died on our roads gathered today to share what it is like to lose a loved one.
• A sniffer dog detected €140k worth of cannabis in Portlaoise.
• A row broke out in the Seanad this afternoon as two senators went toe-to-toe over Ireland’s failed Rugby World Cup bid. 
• Mel Gibson gave his two cents on victims of sexual harassment as he spoke to Ryan Tubridy for the Late Late Show.
• Gardaí appealed for information over a missing teenager in Wicklow.
• Man who allegedly carried loaded gun on Dublin-Belfast train to be tried at non-jury Special Criminal Court.

INTERNATIONAL 

People across Zimbabweare starting another day of uncertainty amid quiet talks to resolve the country's political turmoil and the likely end of President Robert Mugabe's decades-long rule. AP / PA Images AP / PA Images / PA Images

#USA: A man who spent 45 years in prison for a rape he did not commit has been released from prison.

#JESUS CHRIST: Famous Da Vinci painting sells for $450 million.

#LONDON: Kevin Spacey has been accused of 20 incidences of inappropriate behaviour from his time at London’s Old Vic theatre.

PARTING SHOT 

A rail company in Japan was forced to apologise after one of its services departed 20 seconds EARLY.

The BBC reports that a train on the express line between Tokyo and the city of Tsukuba - the train had been scheduled to leave at 9:44:40 local time but left at 9:44:20.