EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know with your morning coffee — shortly before 9am.

1. #POLLING DAY: It’s all over bar the voting. Polling stations are now open around the country, and will remain so until 10pm tonight. The country’s voting the European and local elections, and there are two by-elections in Dublin West and Longford Westmeath.

2. #JAIL: A man has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for attacking an Irish woman in Chicago, leaving her with brain injuries. Heriberto Viramontes was convicted of a total of 10 counts after he attacked Armagh native Natasha McShane in 2010.

3. #ROAD CRASH: A woman has died following a two car collision in Co Meath. The incident occurred on the Athboy Road at 6.50pm yesterday. The woman, who was in her sixties and was the driver of one of the cars, suffered a serious leg injury.

4. #CHINA: A Chinese tycoon believed to have links to China’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang, has been sentenced to death. A court has found Liu Han and his brother Liu Wei guilty of “organising and leading mafia-style crime and murder”, according to Xinhua.

5. #KIDNAP: A Californian man has been charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend’s daughter for a decade. Isidro Medrano Garcia, 42, was indicted a day after police announced that the woman, now aged 25, had come forward with a child fathered by Garcia, who allegedly forced her to marry him.

6. #PEACE: Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore is to meet with Richard Haass in Dublin today to discuss developments in Northern Ireland. The US diplomat chaired multi-party talks in Belfast at the end of last year.

7. #CITY ON LOCKDOWN: The first of three One Direction concerts takes place in Croke Park tonight, amid fresh complaints from local residents about security arrangements.

8. #SOME NECK: There was a brief swan-based emergency on one of the main traffic arteries into Dublin this morning. It’s all over, and no animals were harmed in the course of this morning’s rush hour.

9. #THE OUTLOOK: Finally, the weather… It’s not too warm, but otherwise not too bad. Met Éireann’s expecting it to be “cool, rather cloudy and breezy today”.