EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you five stories you really should check out by 5pm.

1. #PAY CAP: AIB is struggling to find a new chief executive because many of the likely candidates will not accept a pay cap, according to one of the bank’s directors, Michael Somers.

Somers said that the state-imposed pay ceiling of €500,000 per year is a “major factor” in some candidates’ decisions not to take the job.

2. #MLADIC: Judges at the war crimes trial of Ratko Mladić today entered a “not guilty” plea on behalf of the former Bosnian Serb general, after he was ordered out of the courtroom for being uncooperative. Mladić had wanted his chosen defence team approved before entering a plea, however The Hague said it needs more time to approve Milos Saljic and another unnamed Russian lawyer.

3. #DSK: Former IMF chief Dominique Strass-Kahn may face charges of attempted rape in France after novelist Tristane Banon confirmed she will file allegations against him tomorrow. Banon claims that Strass-Kahn attempted to rape her in a Paris flat in 2002.

4. #NORTH KOREA: The European Union has agreed to provide €10 million in food aid to North Korea, as the food crisis in the country deepens. It is hoped that the aid package will save the lives of “at least 650,000″ people in grave danger of dying from starvation, according to humanitarian aid commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.

5. #SAVED: In an act that could warm the even coldest heart, a devoted animal-lover jumped from O’Connell Bridge into the River Liffey yesterday in order to save his pet rabbit – who had been tossed from the bridge by another man. Crowds gathered as the man rescued his pet from the water and brought him back to dry land.