Every day, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really need to know with your morning coffee.
1. #LEAVING CERT: The Leaving Cert gets underway for 55,000 students today. The number of students due to sit non-curricular languages is up by a quarter, the Examiner reports. Meanwhile, TheJournal.ie wants to hear about the ‘reassuring’ phrases or irritating expressions of sympathy to Leaving Cert students which you think should be banned. “Make sure you read the question” or “It was much harder in my day”, anyone?
2. #BAILOUT: Finance Minister Michael Noonan says the benefits of getting a cut in our interest rates are exaggerated, and said Ireland will forego the rate cut rather than make any concession on our corporate tax rates. Meanwhile, France is continuing to insist that Ireland’s corporation tax rate be increased before any rate cut is offered – and is threatening to use its veto to ensure that it is, the Examiner reports.
3. #IKEA: Irish shoppers in Ikea spend a whopping €2 million a week, Conor Pope reports in the Irish Times.
4. #ASYLUM SEEKERS: 49 asylum seekers took their own lives while living in direct provision centres over the past decade, Justice Minister Alan Shatter has told the Dail.
5. #EMIGRATION: Three out of four professionals surveyed by a recruitment agency have said they would consider leaving Ireland if the economic situation does not improve – and only five per cent believe it will.
6. #E.COLI: Is it over? Germany’s health minister says he is ‘cautiously optimistic’ the rate of infection has peaked.
7. #IPv6: The biggest ever test of the internet’s new address system is taking place. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Bing and Facebook are among the companies switching-on IPv6 versions of their websites for the one day trial, the BBC reports. Here’s PC World’s Ten Things to know about it.
8. #ROYAL STARTER HOMES: In the current climate, many newlyweds have to make do with a starter home that doesn’t tick all their boxes. And the first London home of newlyweds the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is no exception. William and Kate were denied their top choice of Apt 1A Kensington Palace as a London base by royal aides, who want to use it as a home for permanent displays and public events, the Telegraph reports. Instead, they’ll move into musty, unfinished rooms that have issues with asbestos.
9. HOAX: An investigation is underway in Texas into how a hoax ‘tip-off’ by a lone, self-proclaimed psychic that she knew the location of a mass grave containing dozens of dismembered bodies, led to a huge police investigation and media frenzy. Dozens of media outlets camped outside the house near Houston, and local media reported that 30 bodies had been discovered. In the end, there was no grave, no bodies, and no report of any crime – beyond the hoax call. Watch the media frenzy that ensued:
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say