EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of the latest news stories, as well as the bits and pieces you may have missed.

• Just eight days after the last set told us the banking sector would need another €24bn of our cash, three Irish banks are set for another round of stress tests – this time coming from Europe. Given the drastic action being taken after last week’s round, however, it’s not thought likely that AIB, Bank of Ireland or Irish Life & Permanent will be caught short.
• In more urgent need of cash is Portugal, which is set to receive €80bn in emergency EU funding after a summit of European finance ministers today.
• The Oireachtas has published the latest round of expenses claims – dealing with the month of February, a month during which the Seanad never met. Despite this extended holiday, however, 57 of the Seanad’s 58 members got travel expenses of €158,677.06. The only one to remain empty-handed? Senator Ivor Callely.
• The News of the World has apologised, and is paying compensatory damages to, eight victims of its phone-hacking practices.
• The Department of Justice, Equality and Defence is to launch a new inquiry into the deaths of three Irish soldiers killed by a landmine while on peacekeeping duties in the Lebanon in 1989.
• A Florida waiter has kicked off legal action complaining about how a British family asked not to be served by people “of colour” when they stayed at the luxury hotel where he works.
• If you thought mobile phones were dangerous while driving, you certainly won’t want to see how dangerous a German soccer match got when one player stopped to take a phone call.
• The cobra that went missing from the New York Bronx Zoo last month – and which was safely returned back last week – has been given a new name. It’s ‘Mia’ – as in, ‘missing in action.’
• It’s been a week of protests, parades, funerals and – finally – good weather. Here it is, in handy gallery format, as The Week in Photos.
• Anyone remember DuckTales? The miserly old uncle, Scrooge McDuck, has topped a new Forbes list of the richest characters in fiction. His $44bn is still less than Bill Gates’ $53bn, though.
• If the contents of the Daily Fix thus far haven’t been to your tastes, despair not! The Not Primate of All-Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, has devoted the latest instalment of his Cardinal Rules column to giving you his own summary of the week’s news.
• Finally, as the Republicans and Democrats try to agree a budget – stopping the United States government from going into a total shutdown at midnight – here’s some food for thought. It’s a CNN report from 1995, discussing the last time the government had to close down.

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