EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of the day’s biggest stories as well as the bits and pieces you may have missed.

• Tens of thousands of students marched through the streets of the capital today to protest against the possible reintroduction of third level fees or cutting of maintenance grants. About 20,000 students from across the country marched from Parnell Street to Government Buildings, chanting: “No if, no buts, no educations cuts”. The protests passed off peacefully – although the city centre was brought to standstill for a while by the sheer number of demonstrators (see photos here). Some students plan to camp outside the Department of Education for the night.
• While thousands came out in protest today, a former deputy president of the University College Cork students’ union has nevertheless called for an end of the “ridiculous carousel” being played out between student leaders and government – saying that higher education without tuition fees is no longer sustainable. Writing in TheJournal.ie today, Ian Power said that a “robust and fully resourced support network for students by providing student loans and maintenance grants” should be introduced to help students deal with the costs of education – including fees.
• The Finance Minister Michael Noonan has confirmed plans to extend the bank guarantee. Noonan says that, upon the advice of the Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan, he proposes to extend the Eligible Liabilities Guarantee Scheme to the end of 2012.
• Gardaí have appealed for the public’s help in locating a missing 40-year-old Wexford man. Declan Waters, from Liam Mellows Park in Wexford town, has not been seen since yesterday (see photograph here).
• Up to 25 per cent of nine-year-olds have been identified by their teachers or parents as having a special educational or learning need, according to a new study by the ESRI. The definition of special needs included a broad range of difficulties such as physical, learning and emotional-behavioural issues in primary-school children.
• Heavy rain warnings have been issued for the west and south-west of the country: areas of west Munster are in danger of spot flooding if predicted levels of rain fall in the next two days, according to Met Éireann.

Derek Mooney pictured with some of the record-breaking Leprechauns for ‘The Most Leprechauns in One Place Record’ in the Grand Canal Theatre during the RTE Radio Derek Mooney Show. Image: KOBPIX

• The group organising the Save the 19 Bus campaign say they are frustrated by the lack of response to their concerns by the Irish authorities and will now take their fight to the European Court of Human Rights. They said the decision to scrap the 19 Bus on 27 August 2011, had led to”a 65 per cent reduction in service and untold hardship for commuters across the city” - particularly the elderly.
• Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been awarded with a peace prize in China, however the country’s Culture Ministry is not standing over the decision. The Confucian Peace Prize was established last year as an alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize after the Scandinavian committee named dissident Liu Xiaobo as its 2010 recipient – however the Culture Ministry disbanded the committee earlier this year.
• Mario Monti has unveiled his new Italian cabinet: he is to act as his own finance minister in a bid to streamline his administration, while the rest of the cabinet will largely be made up of technocrats without political backgrounds. Monti says the absence of political personalities in government will “remove one ground for disagreement” and help the country to focus on restarting economic growth.
• Police in Atlanta, USA, say that they rescued a suspected teenage burglar from a chimney – ten hours after he slipped into it. The 17-year-old boy was found screaming for help from inside the chimney when firefighters arrived on the scene yesterday.
• YouTube personality Rebecca Black became an unexpected internet smash with her song ‘Friday’… and she’s back to take on her critics once again with the release of her new single. ‘Person of Interest’ has clocked up 208,161 hits on YouTube at the time of writing – but what do you think of it?
• Do you know the pain of attempting to sleep beside a snorer? Well, help could be on its way in the form of a robotic bear: the Jukusui-kun bear, which doubles as a pillow, is programmed to raise a paw and gently tickle the face of the snorer when they emit a particularly loud snort – encouraging the offending party to roll over.

Can you see your house from here? Check out this amazing time-lapse video of the Planet Earth – made with sequences of photographs taken with a special low-light 4K-camera by the crew of expedition 28  and 29 onboard the International Space Station (August – October 2011):

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