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Prince Albert of Monaco II and his fiancee Charlene Wittstock (centre) leave the National Museum of Dublin at the start of a two-day state visit to Ireland. Julien Behal/PA Wire
Daily Fix

The Daily Fix: Monday

Our daily guide to the news of the day, and with a few other bits and pieces you might have missed.

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

  • The latest Exchequer figures are in, showing us how much money the state has been taking in and giving out in the first three months of the year. It’s not great news: we spent €7.1bn more than we made, with over €3bn going towards the recapitalisation of the banks, mostly Anglo. Taking out that payment, the figures were broadly similar with the same ones 12 months ago.
  • The European Ombudsman has expressed his sorrow for an Irishman living in the Netherlands who is unable to visit his family in Ireland – because he cannot bring his medication for his multiple sclerosis, which includes medicinal marijuana, with him. The ombudsman said, however, that unfortunately there didn’t appear to be any legal recourse for the Irishman, who wanted a guarantee that he would not be arrested for a drug that is illegal in Ireland but legal in his adopted homeland.
  • Two years after the accident occurred, and on the fourth search of the area, rescue teams have recovered some bodies from the wreckage of the Air France flight that crashed off the coast of Brazil. There’s no sign of the black box flight recorder, though.
  • The United States is handing over its lead role in the Libyan conflict to Britain and France at 10pm Irish time.
  • As Haiti prepares to receive the first results of its long-overdue presidential election, Trocaire’s Justin Kilcullen has been writing for TheJournal.ie on the difference between the natural disasters that hit Japan last month and Haiti last year – arguing that simple poverty and lack of preparation cost hundreds of thousands of lives on the poverty-ravaged island.
  • A fifth of the UK’s iPhone users are constantly overdrawn, according to new studies.
  • A study looking at the rate of melt in mountain glaciers in South America has found they are melting faster now than at any time since 1650.
  • Prince Albert II of Monaco has arrived in Ireland for an official state visit – so here’s five (or more) things you might not have known about Monaco’s royal family, the Grimaldis.
  • It’s 30 years to the day since Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest at the RDS, with ‘Making Your Mind Up’.
  • Finally, the International Cricket Council has deemed that the next World Cup in 2015 will be open only to the ten ‘full’ members, of which Ireland isn’t one – meaning there’ll be no repeat of the famed wins over Pakistan and England from the last two tournaments. In honour of those feats, here’s a song posted to the comments section by a former member of the team, Roger Whelan – recorded just weeks ago to mark Kevin O’Brien’s English innings.