France’s lower house of parliament voted to extend a state of emergency for three months, after the government said the extra powers were still needed to end the country’s worst civil unrest in four decades.

A long-awaited verdict in the trial of 16 defendants over the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire was expected today, more than six years after the blaze incinerated trucks and cars, killing 39 people.

The Archbishop of Armagh Seán Brady gave an interesting St Patrick's Day message recently.