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The Royal Navy could be drafted in to help run prisons in England and Wales under contingency plans drawn up to deal with coronavirus. The unprecedented option will be available to prison bosses if too many prison officers contract COVID-19 and have to stay at home, The Times reports.

A museum's prize collection of papyrus fragments purporting to be pieces of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls have been outed as forgeries. The 16 fragments held by the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. have been identified as fakes by Art Fraud Insights, National Geographic reports.

The Health Service Executive, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, and Medlab Pathology Limited have lost a Supreme Court appeal against a High Court judgment in favour of Ruth Morrissey arising from the misreading of her cervical smear tests. Mrs Morrissey was not told until 2018 that a review carried o

The Irish Government's emergency coronavirus bill cleared the Dáil last night without a vote. The Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Bill 2020 will provide for "exceptional measures, being introduced in the interest of public health and su

Ireland's housing crisis is now "an acute health crisis" for vulnerable people in homeless accommodation or overcrowded housing, the Mercy Law Resource Centre (MLRC) has warned. Welcoming plans to ban evictions and freeze rents for three months in response to the coronavirus outbreak, managing solic

Anne Lyne, partner at Hayes solicitors, has been appointed as chair of the Employment Law Association of Ireland (ELAI). Ms Lyne, who succeeds outgoing chair Peter Murphy, joins secretary Julie Galbraith, treasurer Ciarán Ahern and deputy chair Linda Hynes on the committee of the association.

David Rodgers, tax solicitor at Ronan Daly Jermyn (RDJ), explores the support payment scheme announced this week in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Revenue Commissioners this week published details of a support payment scheme introduced as part of the response by the Government to COVID-19

Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan of Richard Grogan & Associates explains the tax treatment of legal fees. The Revenue have issued a new update of part 07-01-28 on the tax treatment of legal fees. These were updated in January 2020.

Around 140,000 tablets intended for illegal distribution over the internet have been seized in Northern Ireland in part of a global operation co-ordinated by Interpol. The Northern Ireland operation, carried out by Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF) partners, was part of the global "Operation Pangea

Four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in 2012 have been hanged. Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh were given death sentences at a trial in 2013.

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the world’s largest unsolved art theft, in which 13 pieces worth around $500 million, including paintings by famous artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet, were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

A round-up of human rights stories from around the world. Hope in the Midst of the Coronavirus | Human Rights Watch

A judge known to be the richest in China has been charged with fraud, abuse of her power and taking bribes after it was revealed she had amassed her $200 million fortune through gambling. Zhang Jiahui, 55, former vice-president of the High People’s Court in Hainan province, was indicted after

An application brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions seeking the review of sentences for defilement of a child and assault causing harm on grounds of undue leniency pursuant to s.2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal. Background

The Bar of Northern Ireland has called for an immediate two-week suspension of all in-person court hearing except in "very exceptional" circumstances. The representative body for barristers issued a statement yesterday afternoon in response to the "unprecedented circumstances" created by the coronav