EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #DRUGS: Gardaí have seized drugs worth an estimated €170,000 in a raid in west Dublin. A gun and ammunition were also found at the house in Balgaddy, which was raided as part of investigations into drug dealing in Lucan and Ronanstown.
2. #CHILDREN: A new report commissioned by the HSE and Barnardos has found that moving separated children into direct provision at age 18 can cause ‘uncertainty and fear’ for young adults – and raised fears that Ireland may regret sending vulnerable young adults into independent living.
3. #POST MORTEM: A post-mortem examination is due to be carried out today on the body of a young man found in a field outside Swords yesterday afternoon. Authorities remain stumped as to the identity of the body, and cannot yet say whether foul play was involved in his death.
4. #MOTORING: The number of new cars sold in March was down by 10 per cent on the number from the same period in 2012, dealership figures show. SIMI data shows that the drop in March means the number of new cars sold in the first quarter is almost 14 per cent lower than the same period from last year.
5. #KOREA: North Korea has blocked South Koreans from entering an industrial area on their border – the latest escalation of tensions between the two countries. South Koreans were being allowed to leave the Kaesong complex after work today, but were not being allowed to re-enter. The complex marks the only functional border crossing between the two countries, and is a crucial source of hard currency for the North.
6. #CONVICTED: A British couple will today be sentenced after being convicted of the manslaughter of six of their children. Mick and Mairead Philpott, and their friend Paul Mosley, were convicted yesterday of setting fire to the Philpott home trying to frame Mick Philpott’s former lover – but the blaze spread too quickly, killing five of Mick Philpott’s 17 kids and a son of Mairead’s from a previous relationship.
7. #MIDDLE EAST: Israel has warned it will respond to any attacks on its territory, after exchanging fire with Palestinian forces – its first air raids on Gaza since a truce ended an eight-day conflict in November. Israeli planes had attacked an open area in northern Gaza hours after Palestinians had launched three rockets towards Israel. The tensions are thought to relate to the death of a 63-year-old Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody yesterday, after Israel allegedly refused to release him on compassionate grounds after his diagnosis with throat cancer.
8. #SOCIAL MEDIA: The chief executive of Netflix has escaped punishment from financial authorities after posting what could have been considered market-sensitive news on Facebook before giving it to investors. Reed Hastings had posted an update revealing that Netflix had passed one billion hours’ of viewing last June – prompting an SEC investigation into whether investors should have been told first. The SEC now says social media is okay to use, once investors know to expect data from those sources.
9. #STEREOTYPES: It might seem like it’s bordering on xenophobia – but it turns out that French people might simply be naturally more pessimistic than others, while Italians are impatient and Germans naturally methodical and far-sighted. The Telegraph says papers presented to the UK’s Royal Economics Society, attempting to explain the various problems in the Eurozone, compared people of differing nationalities who lived in the same towns – and discovered that some national stereotypes might just be merited after all…
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