The Queen has laid a wreath at the Republic of Ireland's Garden of Remembrance during the first visit to the country by a British monarch.

The act is significant as the garden, in Dublin, is dedicated to people who fought for Irish independence.

Dozens of protesters gathered nearby amid one of the biggest ever security operations in the country.

Earlier, the Queen was welcomed by President Mary McAleese after flying into Baldonnel military airbase.

It emerged that a pipe bomb found on a bus bound for Dublin on Monday had been made safe by the Irish army.

Upon landing at the military airbase, just outside Dublin, the Queen emerged wearing an outfit of symbolic emerald green.

After lunch the monarch wore a white outfit.

God Save The Queen was played when she arrived at the Garden of Remembrance to lay the wreath - regarded as a highly symbolic act as the garden commemorates Irish people who fought over the centuries against British rule.

A one-minute silence followed the laying of the wreath, after which the Irish Tricolour was raised from half to full mast and the country's national anthem was played.

Much of the centre of Dublin was cordoned off, leaving many streets empty, as part of the strict security clampdown put in place for the visit.
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Analysis
image of Mark Simpson Mark Simpson BBC Ireland Correspondent

The Queen, dressed in Irish green, finally set foot on Irish soil at 1203 BST.

It was one small step for the Queen - one huge moment in British-Irish history.

It is 100 years since a British monarch has been in Ireland. Many thought a king or queen would never be welcomed back.

Instead, Ireland rolled out the red carpet for her nearest neighbour.

Whatever the security concerns, this has been a landmark moment in Dublin. In truth, it's one that most people living in Ireland today thought they would never see.

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Meanwhile, riot police officers jostled with demonstrators at two separate protests on streets several hundred yards from the garden.

The sounds of protesters could be heard during the laying of the wreath and black balloons were released by some demonstrators.

There were scuffles between police and republicans protesting against the visit in the centre of Dublin at Tuesday lunchtime.

Up to 200 supporters of the Eirigi socialist republican party later retreated to stage a rally nearby.

The Queen then went on to Trinity College to be shown the Book of Kells, an ancient illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four gospels of the New Testament.

Later, the monarch met Trinity scholars, musicians and artists.

At Baldonnel airbase, the royal party was greeted by an Irish Air Corps guard of honour and presented with flowers by a south Dublin schoolgirl, eight-year-old Rachel Fox.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were then driven in a bombproof and bulletproof car, with a 33-motorcycle escort, to Aras an Uachtarain - the official residence of the Irish president in Dublin's Phoenix Park. The visit is taking place following Mrs McAleese's invitation.

The Queen shook hands with the president at the front of the residence before moving inside to meet the Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny.

The Irish flag and the union jack flew side by side at the gates to the building, where both countries' national anthems were played.

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The BBC's Nick Ravenscroft: "Fireworks, cans, bottles and bricks all started to be thrown"

A 21-gun salute and an Air Corps flypast also marked the Queen's arrival.

She and Prince Philip signed the visitors' book in the residence's lavish state ballroom, before having lunch with the president and her husband.

King George V was the last monarch to visit the country, in 1911, when what is now the Republic was then part of the UK.

UK Prime Minister Cameron will join the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh for part of their trip on Wednesday, while Foreign Secretary William Hague is following the usual practice of accompanying the royals throughout their visit.
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“Start Quote

The Irish President is by the Queen's side. The organisers hope it'll be seen as a powerful symbol of reconciliation”

Peter Hunt Royal correspondent, BBC News

Follow Peter Hunt's coverage of the royal visit

The Queen will attend events this week at the National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge and Croke Park stadium.

Croke Park is the home of Gaelic games where in 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, British forces fired into the crowd at a football match, killing 14 spectators and players.

The Queen is also to make a speech at a state dinner at Dublin Castle.

There are also plans for the Queen and Prince Philip to visit the Irish National Stud in County Kildare, as well as the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary and a technology park in Cork.

The bomb on the bus was found in a holdall in the luggage compartment on Monday night during a check in Maynooth, County Kildare, to the west of Dublin.

About 30 people who were on board the bus were taken off and transported to Dublin in another vehicle.
Convoy of cars in Dublin Tight security meant many of Dublin's streets were empty during the Queen's visit

The device was later made safe in a controlled explosion carried out by an Irish army bomb disposal team.

A coded bomb threat relating to London had been received on Sunday, the first issued by Irish dissidents outside Northern Ireland in 10 years, officials said.

However, the threat level for Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Britain remains unchanged at substantial. In Northern Ireland it is severe.

Scientists are embarking on a two-month expedition in the Pacific aimed at finding ways to reduce the damaging accidental toll of tuna fishing.

They want to find techniques that help fishermen find the abundant skipjack tuna without also catching sharks, turtles, or threatened tuna species.

The scientists will sail on board a tuna purse-seine vessel from Ecuador.

Knowledge gained on the trip will be used to develop fishing techniques or new gear that are much more selective.

This could entail fishing at different times of day, at specific depths under the waves, or by more targeted use of fish aggregating devices (FADs).

"The overall objective is to explore some potential options for reducing the mortality of bigeye tunas and other 'undesirable' species while maximising catches of skipjack," said research leader Kurt Schaefer.

"We're looking for ways in which we can learn to harvest the skipjack without impacting other species such as bigeye and yellowfin - we're not yet testing what we consider to be practical solutions," he told BBC News.

Dr Schaefer has been a research scientist with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) - one of the bodies charged with regulating tuna fishing in the open sea - for more than 30 years.

While the small, fecund skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) forms the basis of the canned tuna industry, the bigeye (Thunnus obesus) is an endangered species in the Pacific, primarily because of fishing.

The cruise departs from Ecuador on Tuesday, using the chartered commercial fishing vessel Yolanda L.
Modern FADs

For reasons that are not entirely clear, fish and other marine creatures tend to congregate around floating objects such as logs.

Fishermen have learned to take advantage of this, deploying buoys - FADs - equipped with GPS and sonar.
ROV under test An underwater ROV (here being tested) will be deployed to film tuna in the nets

When the sonar senses that fish have gathered, the buoy signals the parent vessel, which steams alongside to collect its haul.

Using a purse seine net, the boat can encircle and capture the entire shoal.

The scientists hope that understanding what makes various species move towards the FAD and then leave it again could open doors to fishing selectively.

"One of the things we're doing is behavioural studies using acoustic tags and telemetry," said Dr Schaefer.

"We'll be tagging these species, and trying to see whether there are times when you see separation eithed horizontally or vertically in the water, and whether you could use this to separate out catches.

"We'll also be looking for times of day at which the species might naturally separate - times when the skipjack, for example, might move away from the FAD."

Smaller species may be trying to shelter from predators, while bigger ones may see it as an easy source of food.

The various species may also be attracted away by different signals, such as water temperatures.

A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) will be deployed to film fish behaviour around the FAD, and after entrapment in the purse seine net.

If different tuna species separate inside the net - some swimming high and others low, for example - that could also form the basis of a separation method.
Local knowledge

Having spent long periods at sea on fishing vessels, Kurt Schaefer believes experienced skippers may already know ways of targeting skipjack.
FAD New models of FAD could in future separate different species of tuna, and other fish

The scientists will analyse how well the Yolanda L's skipper is able to predict catches.

This research cruise is an initiative of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), which brings scientists together with people from the seafood industry and from environmental groups.

It is the first of a number of cruises planned for different parts of the world's oceans.

Whereas some environmental groups argue for the abandonment of FADs, the ISSF believes this is neither feasible nor desirable.

"It's the philosophy of ISSF and our partners that abandoning a fishery will not help to improve it," said ISSF president Susan Jackson, previously of food giants Del Monte and Heinz.

"We must help to improve practices that make fishing for tuna more sustainable."

The bluefin - the most talked about tuna species recently, and the most prized for sushi - is not a factor in this cruise.

French national football coach Laurent Blanc has been cleared by the country's sports minister of race discrimination.

Chantal Jouanno said there was no evidence that Blanc had broken any laws, by discussing putting a quota on the number of black and Arab players representing French youth teams.

Blanc has said his comments were taken out of context.

He and others had been discussing how to prevent French-trained players deciding to play for other countries.

Ms Jouanno said the future of the national technical director, Francois Blaquart, who was suspended after the revelations, would be decided by the French Football Federation (FFF).

It is due to release its own findings later in the day.

The affair has plunged the French Football Federation (FFF) into controversy less than a year after Laurent Blanc was brought in to sort out the national team, after its embarrassing performance at last year's World Cup.

Investigative website Mediapart claimed that Blaquart proposed secretly limiting the proportion of black and north African players to 30% at certain regional youth training centres, including the renowned Clairefontaine facility.

Blanc is alleged to have agreed with the plan in order to promote players with "our culture, our history".

Microsoft has confirmed that it has agreed to buy internet phone service Skype.
The deal will see Microsoft pay $8.5bn (£5.2bn) for Skype, making it Microsoft's largest acquisition.
Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users. In August last year it announced plans for a share flotation, but this was subsequently put on hold.
Internet auction house eBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in 2006, before selling 70% of it in 2009 for $2bn.
This majority stake was bought by a group of investors led by private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowit.
Other major shareholders include tech-firm Joltid and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
'Defensive move'
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: "Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world.

Former Chelsea assistant manager Ray Wilkins says under-pressure Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti should not be sacked at the end of the season.

Ancelotti's future is the subject of intense speculation with Chelsea set to end the campaign without a trophy.

But Wilkins told BBC Radio 5 live: "I don't think it needs a radical change... but they certainly need new players to freshen the place up.

"Wholesale changes, starting from the coach, would be the wrong way to go."

Chelsea are poised to end the campaign without silverware after Sunday's defeat at Manchester United virtually ended their hopes of a second straight Premier League title.

United also knocked Chelsea out of the Champions League in April.

Former Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink, who led the club to FA Cup glory in 2009, has been strongly linked with a return to Stamford Bridge although the Russia coach is reportedly not keen on the job.

Fellow Dutchmen Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard have also been mentioned as possible replacements along with Andre Villas-Boas, who has guided Porto to the Europa League final this season.

Chelsea legend and former West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola has been linked with a coaching role at Stamford Bridge.

Ancelotti, who has a year left on his contract, admitted on Monday that his side had fallen short this season but denied that wholesale changes needed to be made to his squad.

And that view is supported by Wilkins, who worked with Ancelotti at Chelsea until parting company with the Blues in November.

"Chelsea have a nucleus of players, I know a lot is spoken about how old these players are but trust me the fitnesss levels are exceptionally high," he added.
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I understand that people are interested - me too

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti on his future at Stamford Bridge

"The age thing does not really creep in. They do have the fitness levels of younger men."

Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay said in March that Ancelotti's future will be assessed in May and after Sunday's defeat at Old Trafford, when asked whether he expected to keep his job, Ancelotti replied: "I don't know.

"I understand that people are interested. Me too. We have to wait two weeks [until the end of the season] and after that we wait on the decision of the club.

"I said a lot of times I would like to stay here at this club but if it is not possible, we will find a different way."

Former AC Milan coach Ancelotti joined Chelsea in 2009 and guided the Blues to a Premier League and FA Cup Double last year.

However, his side struggled to keep pace with Manchester United in the title race this season.

Chelsea were 15 points adrift at the end of February but a superb run in the league, picking up 25 points from a possible 27, put them within striking distance of United going into Sunday's crunch game at Old Trafford.

But Javier Hernandez struck for Manchester United after only 36 seconds and their captain Nemanja Vidic headed a second midway through the first half to set up a victory that virtually assured a record 19th top-flight title for Sir Alex Ferguson's side.