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EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the stories you need to know as you wake up.

1. #ANOTHER ELECTION?: After Micheál Martin soundly rejected Fine Gael’s offer of an ‘equal partnership government’, the Dáil has once more been plunged into limbo. Has another election become inevitable? And what will the electorate make of the fact those they voted for couldn’t bring themselves to form a government.

2. #HIGH SPEED SELFIE: Two men exchanged high-fives and took selfies after a bizarre car chase in Los Angeles.

3. #PAYING FOR SEX: France has become the latest country to criminalise the purchase of sex - but whatever happened to Ireland’s much-touted  new sex laws?

4. #FIDEL CASTRO: The reclusive former leader of communist Cuba has made his first public appearance in nearly a year.

5. #CENSUS PROBLEMS: Officials for the national headcount (which is scheduled for 24 April) have been struggling to access apartment buildings, and the CSO is more than a little worried about it.

6. #ON THE RUN: A man, accused of torture-murder, has escaped from a psychiatric hospital near Seattle in Washington state.

7. #UNHAPPY AIRPORT RESIDENTS: Some locals aren’t loving the announcement that Dublin Airport is to build a new runway.

8. #DATA BREACH: A technical issue with the Irish Aviation Authority’s drone register has allowed registered owners to access personal details of others on the system, and at least four users have done so.

9. #WEATHER: It’s going to be horrible this weekend unfortunately.