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

Pic: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

IRISH

• The HSE is investigating concerns over CJD at Beaumont Hospital.
• A 14-year-old boy has died after a farm accident in Limerick.
• Ireland is fully funded for the next year and a step closer to exiting its bailout but Michael Noonan has one word to sum-up the situation.
• The government has launched a plan to get 75,000 unemployed people back to work.
• Noel Callan, jailed for 28 years for murdering a garda, is eligible for remission the Supreme Court has ruled.
• Survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have called on Catholics to boycott mass this weekend.
• The Seanad has passed another stage abortion bill today with contributions upsetting one Labour senator.
• Joan Burton has said she has been targeted by angry mobs of protestors just like Pat Rabbitte was last night.
• Former Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten has been expelled from the Oireachtas Health Committee.
• The delay in paying third level grants has been criticised today with complaints likely to make their way to the Ombudsman.
• Staff at the Justice Department have not been paid.
• The Orange Order has been told it cannot march past the flashpoint Ardoyne area at the weekend.
• And finally, the Dáil has gone on holidays… for nine weeks.

WORLD

Pic: AP Photo/Masixole Feni

#MADIBA: Nelson Mandela is celebrating his 95th birthday today. He may be in hospital but that hasn’t stopped the celebrations across South Africa. [SABC]

#MANNING: Bradley Manning must face a charge of ‘aiding the enemy’, a judge has ruled meaning the Wikileaks source could face life in prison plus 154 years.  [New York Times]

#RUSSIA: A political rival of president Vladimir Putin has been sentenced to five years in a penal colony after being found guilty of embezzling.

INNOVATION

• Memory is not unique to humans after a new study found that chimpanzees and orangutans were able to remember past events when presented with sensory reminders. [BBC]
• Phone company Nokia continues to post losses but sales of its Lumia smartphone may offer some encouragement. [The Guardian]

PARTING SHOT

A man has attempted to make his way from Dorset, in the south of England, to Ireland on a six-foot dinghy but, unsurprisingly, failed.

Here’s what happened yesterday… >