EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #NICOLA FURLONG: The fourth day of the trial into the death of Irishwoman Nicola Furlong has heard from a defence witness. RTÉ News is reporting that Dr Marianne Hamill argued that the presence of both alcohol and the drug Xanax in Furlong’s bloodstream had, in fact, lessened her suffering and that a question mark remained over how she had been strangled. 19-year-old Richard Hinds is accused of her murder.
2. #EXAMINERSHIP: The Sunday Business Post is set to apply to the High Court today to have an interim examiner appointed to it. The move follows yesterday’s complex restructuring by the former parent company of the newspaper, Thomas Crosbie Holdings Ltd.
3. #ULSTER BANK: Services at Ulster Bank have returned to normal this morning after customers were unable to access cash through ATMs. Online services were also disrupted. Customers of NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland were also impacted.
4. #GOVERNMENT: Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has told TheJournal.ie that after two years in office, government still has a “huge amount of work to do”. He said that the main focus of government continued to be the creation of jobs and the helping of those with distressed mortgages. Gilmore also insisted that the X case would be legislated for this year.
5. #SHOOTING: Five men are still being held by Gardaí over yesterday’s fatal shooting of Peter Butterly, 35, outside The Huntsman Inn in Gormanston, Co Meath. It is understood that the victim had links to dissident Republican activity. A post-mortem is due to be carried out today.
6. #PEACEKEEPERS: The UN Security Council has called for the release of 21 Filipino peacekeepers that are currently being held by Syrian rebels. RTÉ News is reporting that the troops are being held in a “safe area”, and that the UN commander on the ground is hopeful that all 21 will be released.
7. #LION DEATH: A 24-year-old woman has been mauled to death by a lion at an exotic animal park in the Sierra Nevada foothills of remote Central California. The volunteer intern has been identified as Dianna Hanson of Brier, Washington. Investigations are continuing to see if safety protocols had been followed.
8. #OPERATION ‘LIGHT UP’: The two-day safety initiative by An Garda Síochána late last month to address the issue of defective, broken, missing or inappropriate use of headlights resulted in 1,089 motorists being advised and 317 offences being recorded, figures have revealed.
9. #MICROSOFT: The European Union has fined Microsoft €561 million for breaking a pledge to offer personal computer users a choice of Internet browsers when they install the company’s flagship Windows operating system. The company has now paid €2.2 billion in fines to the Commission since 1998.
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