EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the five stories you need to know as you head out the door.

1. #HOSTAGES: Around 32 foreign nationals are still unaccounted for as a hostage situation continues in eastern Algeria. It is not known how many of the foreigners – who were taken hostage from a gas plant on Wednesday – may already have been killed. Earlier, David Cameron told the House of Commons that – as with Eamon Gilmore – he was not advised of the Algerian authorities’ attempts to free some hostages yesterday until the operation was underway. Irish hostage Stephen McFaul is due to arrive home later.

2. #INQUEST: An official inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar – the Indian woman who died from blood poisoning following a miscarriage, when she had asked for an abortion – has begun in Galway. The inquest will look at the circumstances surrounding Halappanavar’s death on 28 October last year. Her husband Praveen was among those in attendance today.

3. #SNEACHTA: Ireland has seen its first snow of 2013, with over 5cm of snowfall in areas in the east and south-east of the country. Met Éireann has warned of ‘blizzard conditions’ in the northeast and northwest of the country later today, while the Road Safety Authority has urged motorists to drive with caution as road conditions remain tricky (if not, ahem, worse).

4, #GOLD MINE: Further tests on a site in Co Monaghan have returned “highly positive” results for the presence of gold, a mining company has aid. Conway Gold and Natural Resources says the development of a mine at Clontibret – where gold flotation rates are higher, and sulphur rates lower, than expected – may now be able to begin more effectively.

5. #APOLOGY: The Irish woman who was sued by Lance Armstrong after raising claims of his doping habits, while she worked as his masseuse, has rejected an apology from the shamed cyclist. Despite Armstrong telling Oprah Winfrey that Dubliner Emma O’Reilly was “one of these people that I have to apologise to”, O’Reilly told ITV that Armstrong’s confession was “old news” and said an apology was “not at all” enough.