EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #BELFAST: 14 police officers, two security officers and a press photographer were injured during clashes last night outside Belfast City Hall. Disturbances broke out after protesters opposing a City Council vote to stop the everyday flying of the Union flag over the city hall.
2. #BUDGET 2013: Unsurprisingly, the papers have more reports about what’s going to be included in Budget 2013. The Irish Times says the introduction of the ‘mansion tax’ rate of property tax will mean a slightly lower rate for everyone else – but the Star says there’s bad news for employees, who will be hit with a €260-a-year bill as a PRSI-free allowance is removed.
In our Read Me this morning, independent Labour TD Patrick Nulty calls on his party colleagues not to vote in favour of austerity measures that hurt those at work.
3. #BANK DEAL: While it won’t affect the Budget, Ireland’s hopes of getting some European help on the cost of its banking bailout will be under the spotlight again in Brussels today. European finance ministers are meeting to discuss plans for a single EU-wide bank supervisor, which is seen as a necessary step before the ESM bailout fund might take over Ireland’s stake in the banks.
4. #AUCTION: An entire street in Co Tipperary is up for sale today, at the latest auction of distressed property. A total of 109 lots will be up for sale at the Allsop auction in Dublin, where Ranelagh’s Dartmouth Square – made famous by a long-running land dispute – will also go under the hammer.
5. #BOMBINGS: The 40th anniversary of the Sackville Place bombings will be marked today in Dublin. Justice for the Forgotten will hold a commemorative event with Dublin Bus, laying wreaths to remembe the three busmen who were killed in the attacks. Nobody was ever arrested or convicted over the bombings.
6. #FACEBOOK: A lobby group seeking an overhaul of Facebook’s privacy regime says it is prepared to take the social network to court in Ireland. The Europe-v-Facebook group, based in Austria, says Facebook – which officially hosts the accounts of all non-US and Canada users in Ireland – is not honouring Irish data protection law.
7. #CYBER-BULLYING: Staying with things technological, the Irish Independent reports that a body responsible for coordinating the management of 400 secondary schools has asked each school to ban the taking of photographs on their premises – hoping to stop students taking photos of each other which could then be used in online bullying.
8. #DRONE: Iran says it has captured an unmanned US drone entering its airspace – claiming the craft was patrolling Gulf waters and capturing intelligence when it was seized. It hasn’t said how it captured the craft.
9. #MILLIONAIRE: Who wants to be a Millionaire? Well, the creators of the British quiz are in for a significant pay bump. A US court has dismissed an appear from Disney, upholding an earlier ruling that the company hid profits from the show’s UK creators Celador International. The amount at stake? $319 million (€245 million).
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