US historians trying to uncover a mystery surrounding the mass death of 57 Irish immigrants nearly 180 years ago have uncovered evidence they may have been murdered.

US researchers may have discovered a mass grave for nearly five dozen 19th Century Irish immigrants who died of cholera weeks after travelling to Pennsylvania to build a railroad.

More than 1,000 people will face the threat of job losses today after British furniture chain MFI confirmed it had called in administrators.

GARDA files on organised illegal dumping operations are to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions next month in what could produce the first criminal prosecution of its kind in Ireland.