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

Pictured at the launch of the Dublin Citywide Reading for Children initiative are 10-year-olds Eve Young , Alison Malone and Jade Burke from St. Clare’s National School, Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6 (Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

IRELAND

• The full scale of payments and expenditure at the CRC was laid bare at the Public Accounts Committee
• Separately at the PAC, St Vincent’s Hospital said they would “swing around” to comply with HSE rules on pay
• A new pharmacy is offering generic drugs at Northern Ireland prices, but the Irish Pharmacy Union says it doesn’t expect members to jump to the model
• A man who held a hunger strike outside the Dáil last summer today chained himself inside a Dublin bank
• SIPTU members at Aer Lingus and the DAA are to vote on strike action
• NAMA announced an end to the 80:20 deferred payment initiative, citing improved market conditions
• Two men appear in court after a car was followed and rammed on the Naas Road in Dublin
• A 92-year-old woman sustained burns following a gas explosion in Ringsend
• 44 jobs were at risk as Thomas Cook announced plans to close its Dublin office
• The Justice Minister signed contracts on the new Cork prison, but the plan was criticised by campaigners
• Michael Fassbender, U2 and the Irish-set film Philomena were nominated for Oscars

INTERNATIONAL

Superintendent Liz McAinsh appeals for information at Fettes Police Station in Edinburgh after three-year-old Mikaeel Kular was reported missing from his home. (Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

#MISSING: Police in Scotland have issued a widespread alert for missing 3-year-old Mikaeel Kular. The boy has been missing from his Edinburgh home since last night.

#HOLLANDE: The French actress at the centre of the infidelity claims dogging French President has begun legal proceedings against the magazine that published the allegations. Julie Gayet is seeking €50,000 in damages and, if she wins, Closer will have to publish the verdict on its cover.

#VATICAN: The UN’s child rights watchdog has question the Vatican over child abuse. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child asked the Vatican what it had done to root out abuse, but the Vatican delegation responded tersely, insisting it knew what had to be done.

INNOVATION

• If you’ve played a video game on a PC in the last decade, you’ll be familiar with Steam, the games distribution platform. Now, the Seattle-based company behind Steam is attempting to break into the PC market itself. [The Guardian]
• Are you one of those people who thinks that Facebook is too ubiquitous, that it is too personalised? Then you won’t like what they’re doing next. [Gizmodo]

PARTING SHOT

(BBCWorldwide/YouTube)

The world said goodbye to Roger Lloyd-Pack, best known as Trigger in Only Fools and Horses, today. The actor was 69. It seems fitting to leave you tonight with this, his first scene in which he attempts to sell Del and Rodney some dodgy briefcases.

Click here for the clip.