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.

• A student has been jailed for six months for stealing a case of water from a Lidl store in Brixton during the disturbances in London. Nicolas Robinson, 23, admitted that he had taken the water after he was arrested by police. A vast array of people have been appearing before the courts in the wake of the civil unrest.
• Gay Byrne has hit the headlines again today, firstly because he’s topped a Red C poll of candidates and potential candidates in the race for the Áras, and secondly because of comments he made last night about the Ireland and the European Union. He said that Ireland was being run by “mad people” from the EU. A poll on TheJournal.ie asked if readers thought that the President should be able to speak their mind and take on more than an ambassadorial role. At time of writing 57 per cent of voters felt that the President should be allowed to speak their mind, while 37 per cent felt that the President should be subject to government control. Four per cent said they didn’t know.
• Cavan’s county dog pound has denied claims that animals were going to be put to sleep in order to allow the lone staff member at the pound to take annual leave. Temporary care has been provided for the six dogs by the Cavan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
• Check out doctor of medical physics David Robert Grimes’ interesting take on homeopathy, in which he says it’s not only useless, but dangerous in the wrong hands.
• Eight Republican presidential hopefuls in the US are gearing up to debate in Iowa today, hoping to make an impression on the state’s impressionable voters. Iowa will hold the first presidential nominating contest in less than six months time. Mitt Romney has already been heckled during a speech at Iowa State Fair earlier today.
• Dublin City Council has spent €50,000 trying to stop men from urinating on the streets of Dublin city centre. The six-man urinals are provided on Friday and Saturday nights – one on Camden Street and two on Westmoreland Street, where many of Dublin Bus’ Nitelink services depart from
• It could be YOU! Two lottery winners are running out of time to claim their prize in Northern Ireland. Two separate prizes, amounting to £276,000, have gone unclaimed in County Down. The UK’s National Lottery is urging people to check their tickets before time runs out.
• This is the owner of those feet in the main picture. Wu Jianping, who lost his arms in an accident when he was five and learned to write using his mouth, has been accepted into Zhengzhou University of Light in China.

Photo by Chen Xiaodong/ChinaFotoPress

• How do you feel about Bono? And how do you feel about Jedward? Put the two together…
• And finally, one sure way to impress your teachers if you’re an advertising student is to get the king of Madison Avenue himslelf, Don Draper, to speak to your class. Ok, so Don Draper is just a fictional character, but a group of students have launched an attempt to get him to address their class, in character as Draper. They flew over 5,000 miles, interviewing more than 50 creative directors or “the Don Drapers of today”. They call it Grad Men:

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