EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you start your day.

1. #MAGDALENES: Survivors of the Magdalene laundries have said they are shocked and enormously upset at comments made by two nuns involved in running the laundries who defended the religious-run institutions on radio last night. Maureen Sullivan of Magdalene Survivors Together said the nuns were trying to take back what survivors have achieved. In the interview, the two anonymous nuns rejected suggestions that religious orders should apologise and said survivors were more focused on blaming nuns than their own families.

2. #CAO: The number of students applying to the CAO to study teaching has dropped by 8 per cent, according to new figures. It is the second year in a row that applications for teaching have dropped. Separately, applications for medicine and arts have dropped while science and agricultural courses have seen increases in popularity, RTE reports.

3. #EGYPT: A court in Egypt has sentenced 21 people to death for their part in the Port Said football riot in February last year, according to the BBC.  Fifty-two defendants have been on trial over the riots, which left 74 people dead when spectators were crushed as crowds tried to escape the stadium after a pitch invasion.

4. #NORTHERN IRELAND: Five police officers in Northern Ireland were injured last night in one of the worst nights of rioting in weeks. A crowd of up to 100 people attacked the officers in Newtownabbey in north Belfast, the PSNI said.

5. #ANGLO: The special liquidators of IBRC will meet with the union representing workers on Monday to discuss redundancy terms for hundreds of employees.  IBRC workers have threatened industrial action if necessary to secure a “just severence”.

6. #PROPERTY TAX: The Revenue Commissioners will save an estimated €20,000 by emailing people about their property tax liability rather than sending them a letter about it. Around 60,000 people who use Revenue’s online service will get an email notice about property tax in the coming weeks.

7. #SYMPHYSIOTOMY: A 45-year-old woman from Meath has been awarded €600,000 in damages in the High Court over a symphysiotomy carried out on her at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda in 2000 which dramatically affected her quality of life, the Irish Times reports.

8. #VENEZUELA: Raul Castro, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Evo Morales have led tributes at the funeral of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in Caracas. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to say goodbye to Chavez, whose body is to be embalmed and placed on display.

9. #FOOD POISONING: More than 60 people who ate at a restaurant in Denmark often described as the best in the world have fallen ill with food poisoning. The Telegraph reports that Noma is trying to trace the cause of the infection.