Updated at 10.38pm

NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news.

[Uncredited/AP/Press Association Images]

IRELAND

• Tributes have been paid, following the death of South African icon Nelson Mandela
• The Government asked the LRC to intervene in the ESB dispute
• A jury failed to reach a verdict in the damaged Monet case
• Gerry Adams stood by his remarks on the Smithwick report
• The man involved in yesterday’s Windy Arbour incident died
• Bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn admitted he was a “bold boy”
• A song paying tribute to a teacher in Tipperary topped the iTunes chart
• A sex offender was barred from travelling outside the UK
• Gardaí appealed for help tracing a missing teenager
• A woman arrested over the killing of Paddy Redmond was released
• A man with a hammer was arrested over an off-licence robbery
• In NUIG, a college society was banned over a homophobic message
• Irish Rail announced some extra Christmas services
• And TDs tried to figure out the meaning of the term ‘amazeballs’

WORLD

A tree lands on a car in Davidsons Mains, Edinburgh after Scotland is hit by strong winds [David Cheskin/PA Wire/Press Association Images]

#UK: A lorry driver was killed as a major storm swept across the UK — more than 25,000 homes were left without power in Scotland and Northern Ireland

#LONDON: Nigella Lawson told a court in the fraud trial of her former assistants that she was being treated more like a defendant than a witness

#FRANCE: French President Francois Hollande promised to double the number of his country’s troops in the Central African Republic

#VATICAN: The Pope set up a commission to advise him on sex abuse

INNOVATION

• It was revealed the NSA is gathering nearly five billion call records a day across the globe
• A Russian startup has released a smartphone with two screens — one a regular LED screen, the other an eReader
• Twitter appointed former Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino to its board — she’s the first woman to become a director at the company [Buzzfeed Tech]

PARTING SHOT

This is how the BBC covered Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, after 27 years, on 11 February 1990…

(Youtube: JiuValley)

Originally posted at 9.23pm