NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news…

Protester Colm Reddy (centre) joined a non party picket calling for the immediate release of Margaretta D’Arcy from prison and an end to the use of Shannon airport as a military hub for the US military took place today outside the Department of Justice on St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin. (Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

IRELAND

• A woman in her 30s was killed after being hit by a jeep in Balbriggan in Dublin
• Minutes of the CRC meeting that agreed Paul Kiely’s €742,000 pension were made public
• Saverio Bellante was remanded in custody in connection with the murder of Tom O’Gorman
• A transgender woman was awarded €5,000 after AIB refused to recognise her new name
• The BAI upheld a complaint that said Newstalk had ‘attacked’ Taoiseach Enda Kenny
• A new regulator for charities will be set up by Easter, the Justice Minister said
• Two traveller women won a discrimination case against a Killarney bar
• Armed robbers made off with cash after a cash-in-transit robbery in Castleknock
• The first meeting about the new Junior Cycle Student Award took place today and while the Education Minister was happy, unions weren’t as keen
• It was announced that local authorities would be given €10 million to finish ghost estates

INTERNATIONAL

Volunteers help in the search for missing three year old Mikaeel Kular in the Granton area of Edinburgh. (David Cheskin/PA Wire)

#SPYING: US President Barack Obama today scaled back some of the powers of the NSA. Obama, who has been dogged by the controversy surrounding the US government’s spying regime said that it was “not enough to say “we’re the government, trust us”".

#SCOTLAND:Police in Edinburgh have said that the disappearance of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular ‘may have been a criminal act’. Police say they have had a positive response to the appeal.

#PUTIN: The Russian President Vladimir Putin today said that gay people should not fear persecution at the Winter Olympic Games, but said that gay people should ‘leave children alone’.

#THAILAND: Dozens of people were injured when a bomb went off in the Thai capital of Bangkok. The attack occurred in the middle of an opposition protest march.

INNOVATION

• Got BitCoins? Love basketball? If you fit into this incredibly narrow group, you’re in luck. The Sacramento Kings NBA franchise has announced it is to begin accepting the crypto-currency as payment for tickets and merchandise. The drawback? The Kings are terrible. [Geek.com]
• Google has developed a contact lens that can keep track of a diabetic person’s blood sugars, telling them when thy need to eat or take insulin. [TheJournal.ie]

PARTING SHOT

It has been cold in Ireland lately. But not this cold. Norwegian state broadcaster NRK reports that water near the island of Lovund froze so quickly that thousands of fish ‘had no chance’. The resulting pictures are spectacular.