EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you start your day.

1. #HEALY-RAE: An Oireachtas official has said that Jackie Healy-Rae failed to respond to an Oireachtas inquiry asking him for comments on the thousands of phone calls made from Dáil Éireann to an RTÉ TV show in support of his son, the Examiner reports. Yesterday, the Tánaiste suggested a further investigation into the calls might be necessary. The Daily Mail reports this morning that the calls to the premium line cost €2,639.

2. #WINNING: More great news from Team Ireland at the Special Olympics in Athens: 20 more medals on day three of the event, with top results in gymnastics, bowling, swimming, bocce, football and equestrian events.

3. #GREECE: Greece is bracing for further protests today against a range of severe austerity measures aiming to cut €28bn from the state’s budget. The parliament is due to begin voting on the proposals today.

4. #ROBBERY: Two men are being questioned over the robbery of a pensioner of his life savings at the weekend in Cork city, the Irish Times reports. Gardaí say they have recovered most of the money. The man was robbed by a man claiming to be a garda.

5. #INTERNSHIPS: A national internship scheme called JobBridge is being rolled out by the government under which 5,000 places will be available for people on the live register. Interns will receive a small weekly allowance and will be allowed retain their existing social welfare entitlements. Minister Joan Burton told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the internships are a means of helping people build up experience and get a foot on the ladder to longer-term employment.

6. #ENDORSED: Presidential hopeful Senator David Norris is both “intelligent” and “passionate”, according to his celebrity supporter, Stephen Fry.

7. #GAA ACTION: An 8-year-old boy and his teenage brother are taking the GAA to court over the sporting body’s insistence that if they play football, it must be for their parish club. The Examiner reports that the boys want to play for a club about 1km from their home, but which is not in their parish.

8. #AFGHANISTAN: Ten people have been shot dead by Taliban fighters in an attack on an international hotel in Kabul. Local officials say most of the dead are hotel workers. NATO helicopters were called in and fired on the gunmen. All of the attackers were killed.

9. #FACT OR FICTION?: The founder of popular online photo sharing service Twitpic, Noah Everett, has sparked a ‘has he or hasn’t he?’ debate online after claiming to have been arrested. He sent the below message and photo marked “Proof” to his 2.8 million Twitter followers earlier this morning.

By way of explanation, he later tweeted: “I guess you can’t walk down your own street half naked… by half naked, I mean naked.”