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The 5 at 5 5 minutes, 5 stories, 5 o’clock…

EVERY WEEKDAY evening,TheJournal.ie brings you the five things you need to know by 5pm.

1. #SYRIA: An Irish company has denied its reported involvement in the Syrian government’s deadly crackdown on protesters against the regime of Bashar Assad. AdaptiveMobile said that it never had a relationship, provided services or engaged with authorities in the country. It had been linked to the Syrian government’s filtering of text messages to stop the spread of dissent.

2. #BONDHOLDERS: Three economists have told an Oireachtas committee that Ireland should cancel or delay the annual repayment of €3 billion in promissory notes to the now-defunct Anglo Irish Bank. The government is tied into a €30bn repayment of IOUs given to the bank when it was guaranteed just over three years ago.

3. #VATICAN EMBASSY: Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that the controversial closure of Ireland’s embassy in the Vatican will be reviewed “in its own good time” amid growing backbench disquiet over the closure last year. Kenny also said that Pope Benedict would be afforded “proper decorum” if he were to come to Ireland later this year for the International Eucharistic Congress.

4. #HONDURAS: As many as 300 prisoners have died after a fire broke out at a prison in the Central American country of Honduras last night. The blaze swept through the prison in the town of Comayagua, 140km north the capital Tegucigalpa. One official said that people could not be freed because the keys were with the prison guards – who could not be found.

5. #SPACE STATION: Keep your eyes peeled on the sky tonight because the International Space Station is due to cross over Ireland. But don’t worry if you miss it, it’s due to cross our skies every night for the rest of February at around 7.22pm. “It will look like the brightest star in the sky,” Chairman of Astronomy Ireland David Moore told TheJournal.ie.

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