EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you start your day.
1. #BOSTON SHOOTINGS: Heavily armed police have arrested one person and are searching for a second following the shooting dead of a police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, gunfire and explosions erupted in streets close to MIT in the Watertown district north of the university overnight. Both incidences come just days after three people were killed and over 170 were injured at the Boston Marathon explosions. Authorities have made no immediate links between the incidents.
2. #BOSTON MARATHON SUSPECTS: The FBI have released video images of two suspects at the site of the explosion and have asked the public not to approach them as they are considered to be “armed and dangerous”.
3. #TEXAS EXPLOSION: A search and rescue operation is ongoing in Texas following an explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed between five and 15 people and injured more than 160. Authorities said they feared they could find more bodies in the rubble of homes and businesses leveled by the blast.
4. #SAVITA VERDICT: A verdict is expected later today in Galway at the inquest into the death of 31-year-old dentist, Savita Halappanavar. She died after being admitted to University Hospital Galway while 17 weeks pregnant with an inevitable miscarriage. Galway coroner Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin will give a summary of the inquest before the jury retires to deliberate.
5. #JOBS: Some 95 jobs have been created in the software sector in Limerick and Dublin. ACI is expanding its Irish Development Centre in Limerick with the creation of 60 new jobs, while Marin Software Incorporated is to establish its international headquarters in Dublin with the creation of 35 new jobs.
6. #SYRIA: The United Nations has described the situation in Syria as a humanitarian catastrophe and have criticised Damascus for hampering aid distribution. Some 6.8 million people are in need of aid, along with 4.25 million people internally displaced and an additional 1.3 million who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
7. #KERRY CORONER: Terence Casey, a Kerry coroner, has made an emotional appeal to young people to heed the words of terminally ill, 16-year-old Donal Walsh from Tralee, who has asked teenagers to think twice before taking their lives. According to The Irish Times, he made the appeal after all but one death at a Kerry inquest were found to be suicide.
8. #DENTIST: Three out of four people who are entitled to a free dental examination do not avail of the service. The Irish Dental Association said cutbacks to the two main dental health schemes and ongoing confusion over people’s entitlements have led to an “alarming deterioration” in the dental health of the population.
9. #OXEGEN 2013: Following rumours for some time, MCD has announced this morning that Oxegen is back and will take place this year on the August Bank Holiday Weekend at Punchestown Racecourse. Tickets go on sale next Friday at 8am.
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