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Dancers rehearse for Bollywood filming at TCD today Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

The Daily Fix: Monday

In tonight’s Fix: The latest in the Áras race, a beauty queen takes down a mobster, and why you should NEVER bathe with live eels…

EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a roundup of the day’s main news – as well as any bits and pieces you may have missed.

In the race for the Áras…

  • Dana Rosemary Scallon has threatened to quit the presidential campaign altogether if she faces further questions about her family. Responding to questioning over a US court case, Scallon said she would leave the race if her relatives were “dragged across” the media.
  • Martin McGuinness has been confronted on the campaign trail by the son of IRA victim Paddy Kelly. RTÉ reports that David Kelly, whose father was killed in 1983, called on McGuinness to name his father’s killers and accused him of lying about his IRA past – an allegation which McGuinness denied.
  • We’ve put together a handy guide to what to expect from the remaining presidential debates. Check it out here.
  • Did you register to vote today? If not, we’re afraid the deadline has passed. But this song about the presidential candidates may make you feel better.

In the day’s other news…

  • Independent TD Mick Wallace has been ordered to repay €19million in loans to ACC Bank in a court judgement today. Wallace, a former property developer, has said he is unable to pay the money back but accepts “full responsibility” for the debt.
  • A civil servant at the Department of Agriculture has been hospitalised after a protest in which members of the Irish Farmers’ Association stormed the Department headquarters in Wexford, taking a door off its hinges.
  • It’s emerged that the downfall of fugitive gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger was sparked by an unexpected source – a tip-off from Miss Iceland 1974. Former beauty queen Anna Bjornsdottir pocketed a $2million reward after getting to know Bulger thanks to a stray cat.
  • As the Occupy Dame Street protest entered its third day, one campaigner has explained his motivation for demonstrating – and we’ve got the day’s events (including bank robbers) in our slideshow

‘Obama Fried Chicken’ in Beijing, China yesterday. The restaurant was forced to change its name to UFO after KFC threatened to sue, but kept its picture of the US president. (ChinaFotoPress/Photocome/Press Association Images)

  • A man has been arrested over the incident in which five men were stabbed in Tallaght at the weekend. The 44-year-old was taken into custody this morning and is currently being questioned.
  • Bad news for beachcombers – the deadly Portuguese Man o’War jellyfish has been spotted in two locations on the south-west coast of Ireland. The jellyfish is beautifully coloured but its long tentacles deliver a sting that can be fatal, even after the creature itself is dead.
  • Feel like you’re handing over too much to the taxman? Perhaps you should take some tips from Google Ireland, which paid just €15.3million in tax on its €10.1billion turnover, according to accounts filed in recent days.
  • One man got more than he bargained for from a spa treatment in China – when a live eel swam into his urethra. The man was reportedly alerted by a sharp pain, but the eel was too slippery to grasp and could not be stopped before it had disappeared inside his body. It was removed by surgeons.
  • Finally, never say that rapper Snoop Dogg doesn’t know his audience. Ahead of an upcoming European tour, last week he delivered a video shout-out to none other than vegetable grower Ian Neale from Wales – who recently cultivated the world’s largest swede:

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6 Comments
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    Mute David Sheridan
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    Feb 16th 2012, 11:05 AM

    Not to worry, the Queen and Obama’s visit should kick extra tourism into gear any time now.. Lol

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    Mute john g mcgrath
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    Feb 16th 2012, 11:08 AM

    These figures and a decline in exports are the start of a further decline in economic activity.
    The next Exchequer returns for the jan mar period will see a reduction in spend thus proving austerity is forcing the economy into a depression.
    This allied to a budget taking 3.5 billion
    out will lead to a bleak 2011/12

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    Mute Noel Rock
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    Feb 16th 2012, 11:19 AM

    Part of the decrease may have to do with a slowdown in emigration also.

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    Mute Rommel Burke
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    Feb 16th 2012, 11:31 AM

    Please tell me you mean immigration Noel? ;)

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    Mute Luke Kavanagh
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    Feb 16th 2012, 1:30 PM

    What? People AREN’T going on holidays in the winter?

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    Mute Alan Brett
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    Feb 16th 2012, 11:32 AM

    And partly the impact of circa 15 flights in and 15 flights out of the Galway Airport that are no more

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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Feb 16th 2012, 4:15 PM

    The useless DAA should sell the old terminal building in Cork airport to Ryanair. Let them make a regional hub out of it like they wanted to do when the new one opened and then we’ll see the numbers rise…at the moment its just sitting there empty…lateral thinking is needed.

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    Mute Chris Mansfield
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    Feb 16th 2012, 5:48 PM

    The decline in movements doesn’t necessarily correspond to passenger decline.

    The Cork decline looks bad, but amounts to 6 movements a day. Then you look at what those movements were.

    The Manx2 flight to Belfast, which was canned after the crash, accounted for 4 of them, yet the plane only had a capacity of 19 and usually carried 10-15 people.

    Also gone are the Air SouthWest flights to Newquay and Plymouth after the airline ceased operating. Their aircraft would have been the same size that Aer Arann use.

    And then there seem to be fewer ski charters.

    Passenger numbers are only down by 2%, despite the large fall in flight movements.

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    Mute Dave
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    Feb 16th 2012, 3:46 PM

    These figures refer to number of flights – not necessarily the number of passengers. Airlines may be running less flights with higher passenger loads, or bigger aircraft.

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