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

1. #EU Taoiseach Enda Kenny is to travel to Brussels today for a special meeting of the European Council. At the meeting, they are expected to discuss sanctions on Moscow over military activity in Ukraine; the Middle East; and the Ebola virus.

2. #TALKS Irish Rail and unions are to attend talks at the Labour Relations Commission today. The talks are aimed at finding a solution ahead of the planned stoppages on 7, 8 and 21 September, which would disrupt travel for the football and hurling All-Ireland finals.

3. #TAKEN The search is ongoing for a five-year-old boy with a brain tumour who was taken from a hospital in Southampton in England. Interpol has issued a global alert for Ashya King, who was last seen with his parents on a ferry to Cherbourg.

4. #CONFIDENCE The board of the International Monetary Fund has reiterated its support for its Managing Director Christine LaGarde, after a French court placed her under formal investigation in a graft scandal.

5. #NICARAGUA Twenty miners have been rescued but five are still missing after a cave-in at an unlicensed gold mine in Nicaragua. The miners were pulled one at a time by a pulley system out of the pit where they were trapped.

6. #ATTACKED British politician George Galloway has bruising and a suspected broken jaw after being attacked in London. The BBC reports that the MP was posing for pictures in Notting Hill when a man allegedly attacked him. The man was arrested.

7. #GOLAN HEIGHTS Fijian military officials say that they no longer know the whereabouts of 44 peacekeepers captured by Syrian rebels at Golan Heights. The UN confirmed the troops were moved out of UN territory.

8. #LEAVE HOME A High Court judge has ordered a man to move out of his 73-year-old mother’s house. The Daily Mail reports that the woman felt she was ‘under siege’ by her son, who had changed the locks in the house.

9. #WHY I LEFT Pat Kenny has told The Irish Independent that he left RTÉ after feeling frustrated and not enjoying Prime Time. He said he hopes RTÉ and TV3 are worried about the competition, as UTV Ireland prepares to go to air.