EACH DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you should know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #ANGLO TAPES: Angela Merkel has reacted to the Anglo tapes…and she isn’t too happy. The German Chancellor told reporters that she regards the recordings with “contempt”, describing them as a “real damage” to democracy and “everything we work for”.
2. #PROCREATION: There have been moves in the UK to allow babies with three genetic parents to be born. The David Cameron-led government gave the green light to a pioneering IVF treatment which takes genetic material from three adults so defects can be substituted out.
3. #PROPERTY TAX: A man who today enters the 12th day of a hunger strike in protest against the property tax has told TheJournal.ie that he does not expect to survive much longer. Tony Rochford has lost 19 pounds and claims the government has ‘effectively sentenced him to death’.
4. #ABORTION: Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald has revealed that six girls under the age of 18 who were in State care travelled abroad for abortions on suicide grounds in the past 20 years. Yesterday, Fine Gael deputy Billy Timmins questioned why the treatment was not provided in Ireland when there were lives at risk.
5. #IMMIGRATION: Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has welcomed the US Senate’s passing of immigration reforms that could see 11 million undocumented people living in the US granted citizenship. That number includes about 50,000 Irish men and women residing illegally across American states.
6. #WELL, HOLY GOD: In news just in, the Corriere della Sera website is reporting that a bishop has been arrested in connection with the sweeping probe of the scandal-plagued Vatican bank – the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).
7. #FLAG BURNING: DUP assembly member Paul Girvan has apologised for indicating his support for the burning of Irish tricolours in Northern Ireland. He had told a radio programme that putting the flags on top of bonfires was “part of the culture” and something he had “no problem” with.
8. #BOOM AND BUST: A businessman in Limerick has made the papers today for an almost-unbelievable land deal. Vincent Campbell sold his house and 4.75 acres of land in 2005 for €3 million. Then, this year, he bought it back for…€215,000. Yes, that is a profit of almost €2.8 million in eight years.
9. #UNPLUGGED: A complaint about a segment on Ryan Tubridy’s 2FM radio show that discussed the use of sex toys – including butt plugs and a “big gigantic thing to penetrate” - has been resolved by the broadcasting watchdog. Read all the details here.
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