EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know with your morning coffee.

1. #FIRE: Two people were killed in a fire at a block of flats in Gort, Co Galway last night.

2. #GATHERING: German chancellor Angela Merkel is among a dozen EU heads of state who are in Ireland today for the annual congress of the European People’s Party.

3. #UKRAINE: EU leaders are arriving in Brussels this morning for a crisis summit as they freeze assets held by 18 Ukrainians including former president Viktor Yanukovych.

4. #BADVERTISING: Bookmaker Paddy Power has been ordered to withdraw its controversial Oscar Pistorius ad in the UK after a record number of complaints.

5. #PORTLAOISE: The chief medical officer of the HSE is to be questioned today by an Oireachtas Committee over the deaths of babies at the Midlands Regional Hospital.

6. #LIBYA: One of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons has been turned over to Libyan authorities and will be put on trial after being extradited from Niger.

7. #ASSAULT: A 14-year-old boy is being questioned in connection with the alleged rape and mugging of a 16-year-old girl according to The Herald.

8. #GENDER GAP: Almost 600,000 women live in deprivation or at risk of poverty in Ireland with gender pay rates widening during the recession.

9. #NUCLEAR WASTE: There was a recent radiation leak the USA’s only nuclear waste repository, but leaders in the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico still support the plant according to the BBC.