EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you start your day.
1. #NEW LOW? Police in the UK are to meet with News of the World executives over claims that the newspaper hired a private investigator to hack into the voicemail messages of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler. The Guardian reports that messages that were already listened to were deleted, giving Milly’s family hope that the teenager, who went missing in 2002, was accessing the voicemail herself. At that time she had already been murdered by Levi Bellfield, who was convicted last month.
2. #LIVER TRANSPLANT It’s reported that the government jet was available to bring 14-year-old Meadhbh McGivern to London for a liver transplant, but the offer was turned down. The jet landed at Baldonnel at 10.30pm on Saturday but it wasn’t used and Meadhbh missed out on a chance of surgery. The Health Minister James Reilly has made a phone call to her family to apologise for the fiasco, while an inquiry has also been launched.
3. #CONSULTANTS Twenty-five retiring consultants were paid lump sums amounting to €8.2 million by the HSE last year. The Irish Examiner reports that the payments ranged from €330,691 to €412,384.
4. #DSK Dominique Strauss-Kahn is planning to counter-sue a French author for slander, after it emerged that she plans to formally accuse him of attempted rape. Tristane Banon’s lawyer says she will file the suit in Paris today. Strauss-Kahn says that her claim is “imaginary”.
5. #LAGARDE Meanwhile, Strauss-Kahn’s successor at the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde is gearing up for her first official day on the job. The financial crisis in Greece will be top of her agenda, while Irish eyes will be on her as the issue of the interest rate in the EU/IMF bailout rumbles on.
6. BUDGET The Finance Minister Michael Noonan has warned of an austere budget in December with cuts of €4 billion. He was responding to yesterday’s exchequer figures which revealed that the government’s tax-take and spending are in line with forecasts. Noonan has said that the December budget will be “very difficult” to achieve.
7. #FACEBOOK China is reportedly in the market for a big stake in Facebook. Business Insider reports that Beijing has approached a fund that buys stock from former Facebook employees. Mark Zuckerberg has previously said that he believes Facebook could be an “agent of change” in China.
8. #POOPER SCOOPER Landlords in an apartment block in Long Island, New York are demanding that residents provide a doggy DNA sample so they can identify who hasn’t been picking up after their pets. The plan was suggested after an offer to pay neighbours who told on their fellow residents proved unsuccessful.
9. #SPECIAL OLYMPICS Team Ireland will arrive back at Dublin Airport at around midday today to a heroes welcome with their 107 medals in tow. The closing ceremony took place in Athens last night, and Special Olympics athlete Diarmuid O’ Leary from Cork and basketball coach Michael Lynch from Westmeath represented Team Ireland, while the Irish athletes were there to soak up the atmosphere…
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