Your Monday lunchtime catch-up
TOP STORY - PARIS ATTACKS
French police raided 168 locations across the country and arrested 23 people as authorities identified more members of a sleeper cell said to be behind the Paris terror attacks. The French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that 104 people have been placed under house arrest in the past 48 hours.
A Belgian man has been identified as the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks. Abdelhamid Abaaoud is also believed to be linked to thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train and a church in the Paris area, an official said.
Meanwhile, people across Europe fell silent as they stood in solidarity with those in Paris to remember the victims of Friday’s devastating terror attacks. In Ireland several hundred people attended a minute’s silence at the French embassy in Dublin where President Michael D Higgins called for people not to fall into the terrorists’ trap.
Hacktivist group Anonymous has been taking down Islamic State (IS) websites for some time, but a post on Pastebin claiming to be from the network vows to hit them “harder than ever” after the attacks on Paris.
Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan has said a number of suspected jihadists are being monitored within Ireland. He said Ireland did "not have a special exemption" from the sort of attacks seen in Paris. The Taoiseach has promised the vetting process for refugees coming to Ireland will be “very thorough and very comprehensive” after fake Syrian passports were found close to the bodies of suspected Paris attackers
IRELAND
The two-year jail term imposed on a man whose dangerous driving caused the death of eight people in Donegal five years ago was “unduly lenient”, the Court of Apeal has found. Shaun Kelly (aged 27), of Hill Road, Ballymagan, Buncrana, Co Donegal, had pleaded guilty at Letterkenny Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing the death of eight men on a road between Clonmany and Buncrana on July 11, 2010.
The Central Bank is not shifting on its tough mortgage lending rules. Amid warnings that the housing market is being stifled by the strict 20% deposit regime, one of the regulator’s top officials said the restrictions are essential to protect the banking system.
Five people have been arrested this morning in connection with the death of Lorcan O’Reilly in Dublin over Halloween. Three men and two women in their late teens and early 20s were detained by Gardaí from Kevin Street.
WORLD
A murder inquiry is under way in England after a 16-year-old boy was shot dead. Police were called to reports of a shooting on a canal towpath near Burrows Court, Eldonian Village, in the Vauxhall area of Liverpool just before 11.20pm last night.
Disability rights campaigners go to the High Court in England to challenge the prosecution policy in relation to the law on assisted suicide. Three judges in London will today hear the case brought against Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Alison Saunders.
SPORT
Daryl Murphy vows Ireland will “attack more” tonight in their crucial Euro play-off second leg against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The striker admitted Martin O’Neill’s side were cagier than anticipated in the first leg, but expected that to change at Lansdowne Road, due to home advantage and Bosnian fragility at the back.
The Galway county board meets tonight with the subject of management on the agenda. The board recruited an independent mediator in an attempt to resolve serious issues between manager Anthony Cunningham and the senior hurlers, but with no success.
BUSINESS
Stock markets across Europe and Asia edged lower after opening for the first time since the deadly attacks in Paris on Friday night.
Exports of goods and services from Ireland into the Chinese market continue to show fine growth, with food exports proving a particularly bright spot, despite the gloomy economic commentary from that market.
ANALYSIS
says the only way to prevent further terror attacks like the one in Paris will be for years of real reform of the Islamist world, while says expressions of love and hope must do battle with calls for a policy U-turn and a closing off of borders.
LIFESTYLE
Singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor is being pitied on social media for giving birth to her fourth son. is outraged. When did we decide daughters are superior to sons?
VIDEO
The message tied to the back gate of the French embassy in Dublin showed shock and grief has no borders. On a Polish flag, written in French, secured to an Irish gate, it said: Pologne toujours avec La France — Poland, always with France.
VIRAL
Shane O’Connor’s mam really doesn’t like spiders. But that’s not going to stop her taking one on with a spatula when it dares to enter her home.
Officials continue the heavy task of identifying the 129 people killed in Friday night’s co-ordinated terrorist attacks in Paris. But who were they?
TECHNOW
Fallout 4 finally arrived last week, and it’s set to be one of the best-selling games of the year.
In just over a month, we’re going to see the first new credits in a Star Wars film in over a decade. The opening crawl will have all new text and a new cast will be struggling to survive in this galaxy far, far away.
Tech giants Huawei are working on a way to solve the problems behind quick charging technology and how it effects phone batteries
SHOWBIZ
Madonna was reduced to tears during her concert in Stockholm over the weekend. The Material Girl singer spoke of the “disturbing” feeling she had of dancing and having fun while hundreds of Parisian people are in mourning.
MOST READ RIGHT NOW
Ireland’s vital away goal only offers a benefit that Martin O’Neill says can be “wiped out” in a second.
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