EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #ABORTION: The long-awaited and heavily-leaked report of the expert group on abortion is expected to be published later today after Minister for Health James Reilly presents it to Cabinet this morning. The report looks at how Ireland should implement the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of ABC versus Ireland, and is believed to come down in favour of introducing legislation plus regulations.
2. #GREECE: It’s taken a long time but finance ministers from across the Eurozone have finally reached an agreement with the IMF about releasing the next tranche of bailout funds to Greece. The rescue package will include €43.7 billion for the country as well as a recognition that debt relief will be required for years to come.
3. #UNSOLICITED: The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner says it has now received more than 500 complaints about automated phone calls people across Ireland have received about abortion. A spokesperson for the DPC said the phone number the calls were initially made from has been shut down, but the calls are now coming from outside the country which could make it more difficult to stop them.
4. #ESM: Independent TD Thomas Pringle has lost his European Court of Justice challenge to the legality of the permanent European Union bailout fund. The Donegal South West TD had argued that the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) breaches Irish and European law but the court ruled this morning that it is lawful.
5. #COURTS: A former Fianna Fáil councillor and one-time running mate of Brian Cowen has been given a 3 year suspended sentence for stealing €18,000 worth of goods from a shop he used to own, the Irish Independent reports. Ger Killally now has debts of more than €84 million and was declared bankrupt in 2009.
6. #ARAFAT: The remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were exhumed from his grave early today to allow forensic experts to investigate his exact cause of death after suspicions were raised that he may have been poisoned. Doctors will take samples from the remains to determine whether a lethal radioactive substance which was found on some of his belongings played a role in his death.
7. #RIP: The pioneering doctor who performed the world’s first successful kidney transplant and won a Nobel prize for his work has died in Boston. Dr Joseph E Murray was 93 years old, and died in the same Boston hospital in which he performed the world’s first organ transplant in December 1954.
8. #AWARD: An Irish animation studio has won a BAFTA award for its long-running CBBC series ‘Roy’ about a cartoon boy who was born into the real world. The award came on the third BAFTA nomination for JAM Media.
9. #MEN MEN MEN MEN: One of the stars of US sit-com Two and a Half Men has described the show as “filth” and urged people not to watch it any more. Angus T Jones, who plays the son of Jon Cryer, appeared in a video for a Christian church in California and told viewers “Do some research on the effects of television and your brain… it’s bad news”. Well, that’s us told…
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