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GOOD MORNING

The 9 at 9 Nine things you need to know this morning…

EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you should know with your morning cup of coffee.

1. #ULSTER BANK: There are fears over hundreds of jobs at Ulster Bank this morning with management set to announce another round of job cuts. As many as 900 jobs could go North and South of the border, the Irish Times reports this morning, adding it is just the first in what is likely to be a spate of redundancies in the financial services sector with AIB set to cut 2,000 staff in the coming months.

2. #LONDON CALLING: Taoiseach Enda Kenny will be in London today for talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron which are likely to focus on EU relations that came into sharp focus after the UK’s veto on the EU fiscal compact agreed in Brussels last month. Kenny will also make a keynote address to an international business forum at Reuters.

3. #HOUSEHOLD CHARGE: The group campaigning against the household charge is asking tens of thousands of households to join its campaign and pay a charge of its own. The Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes says it hopes to receive a €5 fee from some 50,000 homes it hopes will join its campaign, the Irish Independent reports. Meanwhile, 30,000 people have already registered for the charge it has emerged.

4. #LIMERICK: Plans to regenerate parts of Limerick are five years old and €116 million has been spent but the Irish Examiner reports that not a single house has been built and some families are worse off than before as homes in areas such as Moyross and Southill were knocked down but have not yet been rebuilt. Limerick Regeneration Agency head Brendna Kenny said this morning that construction on new houses began last August and is around two years behind schedule.

5. #PUBLIC SECTOR: The Junior Finance Minister Brian Hayes has said that the changes laid out in the Croke Park Agreement need to happen with more urgency if the agreement on public sector reform is to succeed. Hayes said that cost-cutting measures agreed with trade unions now need to be followed up with a push to implement these reforms at staff level.

6. #AFGHANISTAN: The Pentagon in the US is investigating a video posted anonymously online which purports to show US marines urinating on dead Afghan corpses and laughing. The video is unverified but if proven real then US soldiers face fresh allegations of war crimes.

7. #DRUGS WAR: The Mexican government has updated the death toll from its brutal and deadly drug war with it now estimated that over 47,500 have died as a result of the conflict, the New York Times reports. The government of president Felipe Calderón began a military assault on criminal cartels in 2006 but the crackdown has done little to stem the violence.

8. #INTERNET ADDICTION:Internet addiction can affect the brains of teenagers in much the same way as alcohol and drugs do, according to research published today. BBC News reports that experts in China have been looking into the recently recognised condition of internet addition disorder where individuals spend an unhealthy amount of time online.

9. #COMEBACK: A former government minister is launching a TV comeback as part of an Irish-language speaking trio known as the ‘G-Team’. Former education minister Mary Hanafin is taking part in a 10-part series for TG4 which aims to get thousands of young people to speak Irish on a daily basis. She’ll be joined by Kila band member Rossa Ó Snodaigh and Lorcán Mac Gabhann, CEO of Glor na Gael, the Irish Independent reports.

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