EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning cup of coffee.

1. #HUMAN RIGHTS: The United Nations will examine the Irish State’s human rights record today – as campaigners call on ministers to address “serious gaps” in the protection of vulnerable groups. Irish Human Rights Commission president Dr Maurice Manning said that it is “vital that this chance is grasped” to fill the gaps and safeguard the vulnerable in society.

2. #TERESA TREACY: An interview given by Teresa Treacy to RTÉ’s Prime Time was ‘unauthorised contact’, the Junior Justice Minister Kathleen Lynch told TDs yesterday. Lynch said that the Prison Service would now investigate how Treacy was permitted to speak to the media.

Treacy, 65, was imprisoned over three weeks ago for refusing to allow the ESB to cuts down trees on her property in order to install a powerline.

3. #UNIVERSITIES: Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin have both fallen from the top 100 in the Times Higher Education University Rankings. Many Irish third-level institutions dropped down in this year’s list – with University College Cork, NUI Galway, Dublin City University and Dublin Institute Technology all falling. Only NUI Maynooth saw its ranking increase.

4. #DISABILITIES: Today the government is due to announce plans to allow many people with disabilities to live independently, rather than in care homes. Minister for Housing Willie Penrose said the plans were ambitious but that it was hoped that people with disabilities could gradually be moved from large-scale institutions over the coming seven years, the Irish Times reports.

5. #EUROPE: The International Monetary Fund has said that the stronger economies in Europe should avoid imposing excessive budget cuts that could inhibit potential growth. It said that countries like Germany, France and the UK could delay imposing cuts by taking advantage of “historically low interest rates” instead, the BBC reports.

6. #ECB: As Jean-Claude Trichet prepares to step down from ECB, some analysts believe that the bank may announce cuts its key interest rates. Trichet will chair his last monthly news conference today before stepping down as president after eight years at the bank, Bloomberg reports.

7. #SOMALIA: The International Red Cross has begun to distribute food aid to more than one million people across zones in Somalia that are controlled by the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, after rounds of negotiations, CNN reports. Al-Shabab had previously banned non-Muslim charities from giving aid and recently sent starving villagers living in emergency shelters back to their homes to “prepare their land”.

8. #RIP: US President Barack Obama has led tributes to Apple-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away yesterday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Obama said that Jobs “exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity”.

9. #FALSE ALARM: Lifeboat crews in northern England launched a rescue mission in the early hours of Monday morning after a member of the public raised the alarm over distress flares spotted over the North Sea, the Telegraph reports.

Perplexed rescue workers soon realised that they weren’t distress flares at all – but the red sparks that surround the planet Jupiter. Oops.