Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really need to know by 9am.

1. # FIANNA FÁIL: The party seems to have gone into meltdown, after former junior minister Mary Wallace announced her departure yesterday and Ned O’Keefe made a surprise call last night for Taoiseach Brian Cowen to resign immediately.

O’Keefe said Brian Cowen had lost the confidence of the public.

A total of 12 Fianna Fáil TDs have now announced that they will not contest the election. A Sunday Independent/Quantum Research poll today finds that 53 per cent of the public believe such TDs are not contesting the election in order to take advantage of existing pension benefits.

2.#GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: Police in Arizona have have launched a manhunt to find the accomplice of a man who shot a US congresswoman in the head at a public meeting yesterday and then turned his gun on the crowd “indiscriminately”, killing six people.

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, has been identified as the assailant, however authorities are not convinced that he acted alone.

A nine-year-old girl, a federal judge, and an aide to the congresswoman are among the dead.

Giffords, a Democrat, remains in a critical condition in University Medical Centre in Tucson after being shot at point blank range, however she is expected to survive. Giffords has been the target of animosity in the past because of her strong support of President Obama’s health care reform bill – which earned her a place on former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s controversial “target map”, which identified 20 Democrats who had voted for the healthcare bill by the use of crosshair targets.

3. #DUBLIN: Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to a road accident in Dublin in which a woman was seriously injured.

It is believed that the woman lost control of her vehicle at the Cheeverstown junction on the N81 Dublin to Blessington road at about 1am yesterday morning. She remains in a critical condition the Intensive Care Unit in Tallaght Hospital.

4. #BRRR: Motorists are again warned to take care today as icy conditions and black ice persist across much of the country, after some parts of Leinster and Munster experienced snowfalls last night.

The areas worst affected by ice and frost are West Clare, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Limerick, Kerry, Laois, Monaghan, Louth, Donegal and Sligo. The frost is expected to begin clearing tomorrow.

5. #HOAX: Gardaí have launched an investigation into an anthrax hoax in which as many as seven senior government officials were targeted last month.  The targets were sent envelopes containing a white powder, accompanied by a note that wished them a Merry Christmas, RTÉ reports.

6. #VHI: Angry VHI customers have jammed the phonelines in the call centres of health insurance companies and the Health Insurance Authority, as they struggle to avoid the huge price hikes announced by the private insurer last week.

The Irish Examiner reports that lines were jammed with queries concerning renewals, cancellations and seeking alternative, cheaper policies – after price increases of 15 – 45 per cent were announced. Following the announcement, The Health Insurance Authority said its website had crashed twice on Thursday.

7. #SUDAN: Southern Sudan will begin voting in an independence referendum today, which will last one week and is expected to split country in two.

Africa’s largest nation, Sudan has been beset with ethnic and religious strife for many years. Sudanese leaders agreed on a peace deal in 2005 to end over two decades of civil war between the Muslim majority north and the Christian majority and animist south.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir called the vote a “historic moment” for his people.

8. # CHINA: China’s rapid development of a new stealth fighter and long range anti-ship missiles have raised concerns in the United States.

US defence secretary Robert Gates told reporters: ”We knew they were working on a stealth aircraft. What we’ve seen is that they may be somewhat further ahead in the development of that stealth aircraft than our intelligence had earlier predicted.”

9. #PLAY FAIR: Celebrities who endorse products online through blogs or Tweets, without declaring that they have been paid by the companies concerned, may soon face court action.

The British Office of Fair Trading has vowed to crack down on high-profile personalities, like Liz Hurley and Lily Allen, who have plugged products without revelaing their financial interests in them. Elizabeth Hurley’s Twitter page contains at least ten references to Estee Lauder’s ‘divine’ skincare products, the Daily Mail reports. Meanwhile Lilly Allen recently tweeted: “Apparently there is a brand new Playstation Move waiting for me at my office in the morning. Tres exciting”, which raised eyebrows as the gaming company was involved in the launch of her new clothes shop last September.