EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know as you kick off your day.

1. #SAVITA: Savita Halappanavar’s husband has said he wants to see an independent public inquiry into his wife’s death and that he does not want employees of Galway University Hospital to have any part in the inquiry. Praveen Halappanavar told the Irish Times that he will make a request through his solicitor for three doctors from the hospital to be removed from the panel of the HSE inquiry.

2. #GAZA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to travel to Israel today as efforts intensify to see an end to hostilities in Gaza which have claimed over 100 lives. There are growing fears of a ground invasion of Gaza as Israeli troops continue to amass at the border.

3. #AUSTRALIA: Police in Western Australia have charged a taxi driver in connection with the death of a 25-year-old man from Down in the early hours of Monday morning in Perth. Ryan Doyle is alleged to have died after a dispute broke out over the fare.

4. #EXAMINERSHIP: An interim examiner has been appointed to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt in Wicklow by the High Court, the Irish Examiner reports. The hotel, which opened in 2007, has been trading at a loss ever since. It owes an estimated to €47 million to NAMA but the Ritz Carlton Group has indicated that it is willing to keep funding the hotel for the next two years until it breaks even.

5. #DRUGS: Forty people have been arrested as part of a major crackdown on the sale and supply of illegal drugs in Dublin. Twenty of those arrested, including three juveniles, appeared in court yesterday. Gardaí said the operation has successfully dismantled a drug distribution network operating in west Dublin.

6. #DEFAMATION: RTÉ has settled a case with a woman who claimed she was defamed by a  Prime Time Investigates programme about social welfare fraud. Mary Philomena Porter from Midleton in Cork brought the action in relation to the programme broadcast in December 2009. The Irish Times reports no details of the settlement were disclosed in court but RTE has agreed to pay Porter’s full costs.

7. #DEATH: An open verdict has been recorded at the inquest into the death of a 35-year-old woman who was 38 weeks pregnant with twins. Anna Byrne, from Dunboyne in Meath, was found at the bottom of a cliff in Howth in north Dublin in March this year.

8. #ADVERTISING: The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland is to regulate posts by companies on social network websites such as Facebook. The ASAI is extending its digital remit for the first time to include any marketing communications on profile pages for advertisers and other non-paid-for space online.

9. #ITALY: Six people have been arrested after Silvio Berlusconi’s accountant was taken hostage in his home by intruders who demanded a €35 million ransom from the former Italian prime minister. The intruders said they had documents which could help Berlusconi in an ongoing legal case. Bizarre…