Crowds gather in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican today for Pope Francis’ inauguration mass (Dmitry Lovetsky/AP).

HERE ARE THE things you need to know as we round off the day in three easy steps…

THINGS WE LEARNED

#CYPRUS: Members of Parliament in Cyprus have voted overwhelmingly to reject  a draft bill that would have helped the country qualify for an EU bailout with 36 votes against and 19 abstentions. The controversial bill would have seized part of people’s bank deposits and now the government must come up with an alternative plan to raise money.

#NICOLA FURLONG: Richard Hinds has been found guilty of the murder of Irish student Nicola Furlong in Japan. The 19-year-old will spend a minimum of five years in prison. Responding to the sentencing, Furlong’s parents said that Nicola’s life “was worth more than that”and they were “not really” satisfied with the verdict.

#POPE FRANCIS: Huge crowds of nearly 200,000 pilgrims gathered today for the inauguration mass of Pope Francis. In his address, the newly elected pope promised to embrace the “poorest, the weakest” of humanity and said that his would be a “lowly, concrete and faithful” papacy.

#SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: Labour has published legislation that would allow civil marriage for same-sex couples ahead of the examination of the issue at the Constitutional Convention next month.

#KILKENNY: A man in his 40s has been arrested in connection with the death of Anthony Barrett at a house in Fatima Place in Kilkenny on 7 March. The man was arrested in Kilkenny City at around 11am.

A monkey walks past Indian soldiers waiting for the start of a ceremonial reception of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi, India (Saurabh Das/AP).

THINGS WE LOVED

• Has your first day back in work after the long weekend made you dream about the many ways you could get yourself the sack so you can sit around in your pants all day reading TheJournal.ie? Well Buzzfeed have some ideas on how you can do just that… We still haven’t recovered from number 9.
• These images taken by photographer Mike Brody during the years he spent travelling on freight trains.
• This video of a bridge implosion. It’s particularly impressive in super slow motion:

(Ando22RE/YouTube)

THINGS WE SHARED

• It’s Glenn Close’s birthday today so here are 11 reasons we think she’s awesome and you should too.
• This incredibly insightful 9-year-old on the meaning of life:

(Zia Hassan/YouTube)

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