EVERY MORNING TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you kick off your day.

1. #BAD BANK: Nine billion pounds (€10.6 billion) worth of Ulster Bank’s high-risk or non-performing loans will be transferred to a ‘bad bank’. The move comes after a UK Government review of the bank’s parent company the Royal Bank of Scotland.

2. #FATAL ACCIDENT: A man in his 20s was killed in a hit and run in Cork last night. Gardaí are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information on a ‘Ford Transit’ type van involved in the incident to come forward.

3. #HEALTH: The cost of over 500 different medicines will drop today by up to 70 per cent. This includes atorvastatin products used to control cholesterol.

4. #SYRIA: Israel is believed to have carried out a strike on a Syria airbase, targeting a shipment of missiles destined for Hezbollah, Reuters reports. Two similar airstrikes were carried out in May.

5. #WHAT THE TRUCK: Any vehicle higher than 4.65 metres will be banned from Irish roads from today. The measure is mainly aimed at avoiding collisions with low bridges, the Department of Transport said.

6. #STARDUST: Gardaí are opening a new investigation into allegations that some witnesses in the 1981 inquiry into the Stardust disaster lied, the Irish Sun reports.

7. #DUBLIN FIRE BRIGADE: Wooden pallets stockpiled for a Halloween bonfire caused a fire in a group of flats in Dublin city centre early Thursday morning. No one is believed to have been injured.

8. #GRANTS: SUSI has paid almost two-thirds of student grants so far this year, compared to just 10 per cent at the same time last year. RTÉ reports that 23,000 first-time applications have been awarded, along with 20,000 renewal students.

9. #CHINA: Security officials in China believe the East Turkestan Islamic Movement was responsible for a crash in Tiananmen Square which killed five people, the BBC reports. A car crashed into a crowd and burst into flames in the square on Monday.