EVERY AFTERNOON, TheJournal.ie brings you the five things you need to know at 5 o’clock.

1. #COALITION: Having just agreed a framework for government, Labour’s Ruairí Quinn has criticised Fine Gael’s “anti-market attitudes” over the awarding of a contract to print Irish state examination papers to a UK company.

2. #CHINA: The Chinese government has cancelled plans to host a St Patrick’s Day celebration in Shanhai over fears that the ‘jasmine revolution’ could spread across the country. Meanwhile, Moscow has also cancelled its St Patrick’s Day parade plans – but for very different reasons.

3. #FRANCE: Former French president Jacques Chirac faces criminal proceedings over allegations of corruption. The trial has taken 16 years to get to court and is due to open today, but may be delayed further due to a last-minute protests by another defendant.

4. #READ ME: Englishwoman Sarah Franklin, who spent three years in Ireland, says that Irish people feel a greater sense of kinship to the English, than the English do in reverse. Read more here on what Franklin learned about Anlgo-Irish relations from her time here.

5. #CARNIVAL: The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been celebrating its annual world-famous carnival festival over the weekend, putting on a series of colourful and musical parades. Check out TheJournal.ie‘s slideshow of some of the most captivating images from this year’s parades.