EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know a little before 9am.

1. #EBOLA: The HSE is awaiting the result of tests to determine whether or not a Donegal man died from ebola after returning from Sierra Leone.

2. #IRA: A bog in Co Meath will be the site of searches today for the remains of Brendan Megraw, one of the “disappeared” who was kidnapped and killed by the IRA in 1978.

3. #RIP: Albert Reynolds will lie in state in Dublin’s Mansion House tomorrow, before his funeral on Monday. Tributes to the former taoiseach have continued to pour in.

4. #FEARS: Top US officials have said that Islamic State militants in the Middle East are “beyond anything we’ve ever seen.”

5. #CHURCH: There has been condemnation of remarks by leading Vatican cleric Cardinal George Pell, who compared the Catholic church to a trucking company in discussing its leadership’s responsibility for child abuse.

6. #ABORTION: The Department of Justice says they have been granting visas for asylum-seekers to travel back and forth to the UK for abortions.

7. #BIG DEAL: Bank of America has been fined nearly $17 billion by US authorities for selling dodgy subprime mortgages, which sparked the global economic crisis in 2008.

8. #CHILLING: The family of US photojournalist James Foley, murdered by jihadists in Syria this week, have published in full the blood-curdling email they received from the militants. It has also emerged that Pope Francis phoned Foley’s parents to offer his condolences.

9. #GREEN GIANT: The bright-green Comet Jacques will appear in the skies above Ireland this weekend. So look up!