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

1. #CHILDREN The child and family agency Tusla will today release reports into the deaths of five children in State care. The reports will make recommendations about the way children in State care are dealt with.

2. #LENDING Nama is to step up its involvement in the Dublin property market, the Irish Times reports. It says upping its lending activities is part of a new push by the Coalition to boost housing supply in Dublin.

3. #ISRAEL New Israeli air and tank strikes in Gaza have killed several people, bringing the death toll to 204. Yesterday saw Israel’s first fatality in the week-long unrest. Some of the raids targeted homes of senior Hamas officials, but there were no reports of casualties in those strikes.

4. #MOTHER AND BABY The chair of the Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes will be named today. The report of an interdepartmental committee will also be published – but the commission’s terms of reference is not yet ready to be made public.

5. #ROY COLLINS Convicted murderer and gang leader Wayne Dundon put a €500k hit on the family of Roy Collins, the Herald says today. It reports that the contract was put out a year before Dundon’s trial for Collins’ murder began.

6. #ARREST The alleged killer of two Irish peacekeepers has been arrested in the US and faces deportation. Mahmoud Bazzi is suspected of being involved in the abduction and murder of Privates Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne. He was arrested over immigration violations.

7. #SMART Trinity tops the list of eight Irish universities that appear in the Centre for World University Rankings’ latest list. Second and third in the Irish list are University College Dublin and University College Cork respectively.

8. #MEXICO Police officers raided a group home in Mexico and rescued 458 children who were forced to beg for money and suffered sexual abuse while being held against their will in filthy conditions. 138 adults were also rescued.

9. #PARTNERS IBM and Apple – historically rivals – have unveiled a ‘landmark’ partnership to win over business customers by offering iPhones and iPads that are specially tailored to the corporate world.