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

1. #INTEREST RATES: The European Central Bank has handed mortgage holders a temporary reprieve, by deciding not to increase its main interest rate at a meeting in Helsinki today.

While today’s freeze was expected, comments from ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet indicated that there would be no increase next month either – meaning it will be July before interest rates are increased further, and mortgage repayments pushed higher.

2. #COURTS: A criminal case against a man charged with robbing the house of RTÉ reporter Fergal Keane has been dropped on the direction of the DPP.

Keane had yesterday told the court he had feared for his life when the man threatened to stab him at his home in November 2007.

3. #FIRES: The gorse fires that have torn through the midlands and north-west of Ireland have caused over €5m worth of damage, according to the State’s forestry agency Coillte. A total of 985 hectares of land have been destroyed across 13 of the Republic’s 26 counties, while five counties in Northern Ireland were also affected.

4. #PRISON DEATHS: Two young people have died while in custody at a young offenders’ centre in Northern Ireland. The two, one man and one woman, were found in different wings of the centre in Belfast last night.

Both are thought to have hanged themselves, but the two are not believed to have known each other.

5. #VETERAN: Finally, some sad news from Australia: the world’s last known combat veteran of World War I has passed away. Charles Choules, known to his comrades as ‘Chuckles’, died today at the age of 110.

Choules was so young during the Great War that he purposely lied about his age to get admission to the Royal Navy.