EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of all the day’s main news as well as the bits and pieces that you may have missed.

• Two people have died on our roads over the last 24 hours. A man has died and another was seriously injured following a crash in Clare at around 8pm last night. While in Roscommon this morning, an 83-year-old woman died after her car crashed outside Boyle.
• SIPTU intends to demolish and rebuild Dublin’s iconic Liberty Hall after being granted planning permission by Dublin City Council to make it more modern and bigger.
• Nelson Mandela is in hospital in South Africa after undergoing surgery overnight. The former South African president, now 93, was admitted to hospital yesterday with a stomach complaint.
• Two US soldiers have died after they were shot dead in Afghanistan during a fifth day of rioting over the accidental burning of Korans by American forces stationed in the capital. NATO has subsequently withdrawn all its personnel from Afghan ministries it is reported tonight.
• In Syria, the International Committee of the Red Cross is attempting to negotiate a halt to fighting in the city of Homs in order to allow it to evacuate injured personnel including two foreign journalists.
• A good day for Silvio Berlusconi who has been told the corruption trial being brought against him by prosecutors cannot go ahead as a Milan court has ruled the statute of limitations has run out. The former Italian prime minister always denied wrongdoing.
• The government has spent over €104,000 on photography less than a year after taking office. We’ve outlined the details of what department spent what right here.

• Andrew Trimble goes over the line to complete the scoring as Ireland ran out 42-10 winners over Italy in the sides’ Six Nations clash at the Aviva Stadium. Our colleagues at TheScore.ie have rounded-up all the reaction and rated the performances of Declan Kidney’s men. (Picture: INPHO)
• The government is unlikely to back a group of independent TDs’ bill to legislate for abortion in this country but will instead most likely introduce similar legislation later in the year, it has emerged today.
• Twitter may have hit 500 million users this week but one influential tweeter is warning that too much usage of the micro-blogging website could be unhealthy. That would be none other than co-founder Biz Stone.
• It is a year since the general election and we’ve been looking back at the pivotal moments of #GE11 and seeing how Enda Kenny has been doing on his election pledges. We’re also asking you who you would vote for now.
• A Pablo Picasso painting is undergoing a medical check. ‘Guernica’ – one of his most iconic paintings – is being examined to see how its holding up after years of travelling the globe for exhibitions.
• With the controversy over the Paddy Power Transgender TV ad this week, we’ve been looking at the issues surrounding gender identity.
• 30 seconds of silence in the Seanad and the amount of old Irish punts we’re still hoarding – the week in stats is here.
• If you’re stuck for something to do tonight, you could do no better then look up above because Astronomy Ireland says that the planet Venus will be visible as a bright star just below the moon between 6 and 10pm. While at exactly 7.29pm tonight you can see the extremely bright ‘star’ of the International Space Station over Ireland as it passes very close to the Venus-Moon pairing. Exciting times.
• Finally, US presidential candidate Mitt Romney committed a double faux-pas yesterday. He gave a speech in Michigan to just over thousand people but as the New York Times points out, the stadium had 65,000 seats, making it look pretty empty whenever the cameras panned away. That and boasting about his wife driving “a couple of Cadillacs” didn’t help either. Watch:

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