Barnier: We are not in a position to find a Brexit agreement

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator has said the bloc is not in a position to find an agreement on Brexit.

Michel Barnier was addressing the European Commission in Brussels on Wednesday, ahead of a European Council summit next week.

He said proposals from the UK to avoid a backstop have not been properly developed or tested.

Turkish troops begin ground offensive in northern Syria

Turkish troops have begun a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters just hours after launching airstrikes in north-eastern Syria.

The land assault, alongside the Syrian National Army, comes after US forces began withdrawing from the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the news on Twitter on Wednesday, writing: "Our aim is to destroy the terror corridor which is trying to be established on our southern border and to bring peace and peace to the region".

Varadkar on no-deal Brexit: "We are forewarned"

The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said Ireland has been "forewarned" over a no-deal Brexit in Britain.

He made the comments in a Budget 2020 speech in the Dáil on Wednesday.

He told deputies: "We are now 22 days away from the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, and everyone in the country knows the dangers and challenges we face.

"We are forewarned - and our objective in Budget 2020 is to make sure we are forearmed."

Dublin newsagent closed after dead rat found under deli

A busy Dublin newsagent was served with a closure order last month after a dead rat was discovered under its deli counter.

The Londis store on Grafton Street was closed on September 18th but reopened a day later.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) said the rat was found in a tap under the ground floor deli.

Coleen Rooney accuses Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories to press

The wife of English footballer Wayne Rooney, Coleen Rooney, has accused the wife of another footballer of passing stories about her to The Sun newspaper - something Rebekah Vardy strenuously denies.

Rooney posted on her Twitter account that private Instagram stories, which are posts that disappear after 24 hours on the social media app, had been leaked to the British tabloid newspaper.

Ms Rooney claims she had set the privacy settings to ensure that the posts were only visible to one account, which belongs to Ms Vardy.