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

Staff at Marks and Spencer on Henry Street in Dublin at the picket line during today’s strike by more than 2,000 employees. (Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

IRELAND

• Flights to and from Irish airports have been affected by a technical problem with UK air traffic control.
• More than 2,000 workers at Marks and Spencer stores went on strike today.
• The anti-apartheid Dunnes Stores strikers are to attend Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
• Junior Minister Seán Sherlock has defended Ireland’s controversial copyright law.
• The PSNI says officers were lucky not to be killed after shots were fired at them in Belfast.
• A man has died in a slurry pit on a farm in Cavan.
• Former Tánaiste Mary Coughlan hasn’t ruled out a return to politics.
• A bomb disposal unit has dealt with a highly explosive chemical at a Dublin school.
• U2 have said goodbye to their manager Paul McGuinness after more than three decades.

INTERNATIONAL

Flowers and tributes at the statue of Nelson Mandela in Westminster Square in central London today. (Pic: Laura Lean/PA Wire)

#TRADE: The World Trade Organisation has agreed a historic global trade deal worth $1 trillion.

#MANDELA: Nelson Mandela’s family has spoken publicly about their grief after his death. [BBC]

#FREE: North Korea has released an 85-year-old American man who was detained in October while visiting the DPRK.

INNOVATION

• With all the focus on PlayStation and Xbox this week, what has happened to Nintendo? [Wired]
• Google is one step closer to unveiling its own set-top box for streaming videos next year. [Mashable]
• Thinking about buying a new phone? Here’s our guide to the best – and worst – features of some of the most popular smartphones out there.

PARTING SHOT

After years of writing about gun atrocities in America – from Columbine to Fort Hood to Aurora – journalist Mathew Lysiak left the newspaper he was working for after covering the massacre at Newtown. In this thoughtful piece, he explains why. [Newsweek]

Here’s what happened yesterday >