The cruise ship Quest For Adventure is at anchor in the Foyle Estuary at Carnagarve – between Moville and Greencastle today.

Hundreds of passengers are visiting various parts of Co Donegal and Derry.

But local environment campaigners say the ship is just 50 metres from a beach where Donegal County Council has set a proposed sewage discharge point of the proposed Moville Greencastle Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Irelands Ryan Dolan is gearing up for his performance at tonight’s Eurovision final in Sweden.

The 27 year old from Strabane in Co. Tyrone will perform ‘Only Love Survives’ at the grand final tonight night in Malmo, to a worldwide audience of 70 million viewers.

Around 40 of Ryan’s friends and family, including his parish priest, are in Sweden to support Ryan in the final.

And Strabane priest Fr Boland is urging everyone in the town to vote for Ryan:

People in Strabane are being urged to attend a protest march in the town this afternoon in support of Greenfield home.

The residential care home had been threatened with closure recently.

The meeting point for the protest march, which is being organised by the Friends of Greenfield Home, is at Longs car park at 2 o clock.

Protestors will then make their way to Abercorn Square.

Brian Mooneys mother is a resident of Greenfield, he is urging people to attened this afternoon…..

The seizure was made in in November 2011.

38-year-old Andrew Doherty of Sycamore Avenue in Sion Mills, was the driver of a lorry which was stopped and found to contain 125kgs of herbal cannabis.

Police believe the drugs were destined for Ireland.

The police operation was led by the PSNI working with the Garda, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Europol and customs and coastguard agencies in Greece.

Doherty was sentenced in court in Athens yesterday. A Greek national was also jailed by the same court.

A number of other suspects were arrested at the time of the seizure. A further 100kgs of herbal cannabis was seized from a warehouse in Greece.

A large crowd last night agreed to hold a public protest in opposition to plans to continue closing beds at Dungloe Hospital.

Over 200 people attended the meeting in the Ionad Teampaill Chróine centre and there was unanimous condemnation of plans to close 10 beds at the hospital recently.

The meeting was addressed by North West MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher, Cllrs David Alcorn and Marie Therese Gallagher, IMPACT spokesperson Richy Carruthers and SIPTU spokesperson Declan Ferry.

The lobby group agreed that they would meet with management of the hospital and Minister Dinny McGinely, while there was support for a protest march to take place in the town.

Northwest MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher told us what was decided at last nights meeting:

He’s been quizzed this morning by politicians on day one of three of hearings on the laws.

Some staunchly pro-life Fine Gael and Independent TDs and Senators have questioned the point of the hearings saying the last time there were hearings in January the views were widely ignored in the drafting of the bill.

Doctor Hologram says the suicide provision had to go into the laws because it could not be left out.

“We simply cannot say that the circumstance of a real and substantial risk to a women’s life could never occur as a consequences of suicidal idea, and that’s that reason that provision is within Heads (of the Bill)” he said.

“I did say that I don’t believe that it would be a prevalent Stanton or a very common situation – but I could not say that it would never occur” he added.

Reports today suggest that CIE will ask the National Transport Authority for a fare increase across bus and rail services.

They are also looking to encourage people to use pre-paid tickets or Leap cards which are cheaper.

But Leo Varadkar says there’s always a fares review at the end of the year but no hikes are set in stone:

“The NTA…will make a decision at the end of the year as to whether fares should go up again” he said.

“That happens every year – there’s no decisions made at this stage”.

“One thing that the NTA has to take into account before agreeing a fare increase is the impact it will have on the number of passengers – because obviously if you increase fares too much less people use public transport, and that defeats the whole purpose” he added.

The report by the National Council for Special Education says the current system may lead to the mislabelling of children in order to secure resources.

It has also found that some children find it hard to find a school place.

CEO of the NCSE Teresa Griffin says some schools put “soft barriers” in place to stop children with special needs from gaining entry.

“For example it might be suggested to a parent that actually a school down the road might be the more appropriate school for that child – and we are very, very concerned with that – because in the NCSE we resource all children and all schools on the same basis” she said.

“So there should be no reason for a child to be refereed to another school” she added.

That is the findings of a study carried out by a team at the University of Ulster which has shown that people believe they can eat more of the foods that are deemed better for us.

The research also indicates that many people assume that foods with certain health claims are lower in calories than they actually are.

Cliodhna Foley Nolan of Safefood Ireland says those tested consumed up to 30 to 80 percent more of the perceived healthier product.

“They were given say two types of – say – cereal, or two types of drink, or two types of coleslaw; one which was called a healthier versions and one which was called standard” she said.

“In fact, the two of them were the exact same amount of calories”.

“But we found that when they thought that something was healthier, or had been marketed as that, that they ate a lot more of it” she added.

Corporate pension provider IFG says the government will not be able to afford to scrap the levy in light of the settlement of pensions for Waterford Crystal workers.

The Finance Minister Michael Noonan stated in the Dail last week that the charge would be dropped after 2014.

But Samantha McConnell of IFG says the cost of the pensions for Waterford Crystal is an estimated 300 million euro which leaves the government with little option.

“They only have 2 choices here – they either collect through tax revenue, which is not a palatable option, or put the levy back on the industry” she said.

“In fairness, that’s what they have done in pervious examples” she added.