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

Chief Executive of Rehab Angela Kerins (right) arrives at Leinster House today with John McGuire, Director of Fundraising. (Image Credit: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

IRELAND

• Rehab Group CEO Angela Kerins defended her €240,000 salary.
• Three other Rehab executives refused to disclose theirs.
• The Taoiseach said that the Irish government was involved in the case of a man acquitted of carrying out the 1982 IRA bombing in Hyde Park.
• The government published its terms of reference for the inquiry into allegations of garda misconduct.
• A TD claimed that a garda perusing a claim of sexual harassment within the force was warned not to do so by the former Confidential Recipient.
• The unemployment rate fell to 12.1 per cent, and the government announced plans to support the creation of 30,500 jobs.
• The state admitted liability for the death of an Air Corps cadet in a 2012 plane crash.
• Notice of industrial action was served on Aer Lingus and three airports.
• The High Court ruled that TD Joan Collins will only have to pay 75 per cent of the legal costs in her promissory notes case.
• A review of ambulance services in Dublin was announced.
• UTV Ireland received a ten-year broadcasting contact.
• A Canadian group formally took over the running of the Lotto.

INTERNATIONAL

Anti-Yanukovych protester sit on top of an army armored vehicle drive past a barricade along a street in central Kiev, Ukraine. (Emilio Morenatti/AP/Press Association Images)

#UKRAINE: Armed men seized control of parliament buildings in Crimea as fears of conflict in the region rise.

#CRIMEA: The region is to hold a referendum on joining the Russian Federation. [FT]

#NORTH KOREA: The country test-tired four short-range missiles. [AFP]

#ITALY: The captain of the Costa Concordia returned to the ship’s wreck for the first time since the 2012 disaster. [BBC]

INNOVATION

• It was reported that British and American spy agencies had collected millions of Yahoo! users’ webcam images.
• Google announced a project to build smartphones constructed of individual Lego-like blocks.
• Researches developed a virus that can spread over WiFi networks.

PARTING SHOT

Remember when you got your first DynaTAC in 1974? No? Well then maybe this overview of the past 40 years of mobile phones will remind you. (h/t Gizmodo)

Here’s what happened yesterday >