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

• Tear gas has been fired at protesters in Athens as a 48-hour strike against austerity measures got underway. The Greek parliament will vote tomorrow on the measures, which must be passed if the country is to receive another batch of its bailout funds next month. Protesters hurled rocks and fire bombs at police as peaceful protests turned violent. EU Commissioner Oli Rehn has said meanwhile that Greece must pass the austerity measures because the future of the country and the financial stability of Europe are at stake.
• French finance minister Christine Lagarde has been named as the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund – the first woman to hold the position. Lagarde had been hotly tipped to take up the post.
• A woman in her sixties has been killed in a crash on the M6 after she drove the wrong way down a ramp onto the road near Moate in Co. Westmeath. RTÉ reports that Gardaí had tried to stop the car, but that it was involved in a head-on collision. The driver of the other car is in a critical condition.
• A Polish man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for ambushing a woman in a public toilet in Kanturk, Co. Cork and subjecting her to repeated rapes.
• A grave in a cemetery in Monaghan is being excavated in a search for the remains of one of the ‘disappeared’. It’s believed that the investigation is linked to one of the victims of the IRA or INLA who vanished in the seventies or eighties. Seventeen-year-old Tyrone teen has previously been the focus of digs in the same area of Monaghan.
• RTÉ says that it no longer has any of the data or call records from the 2007 series of Celebrities Go Wild. Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae won the reality TV show, and reportedly received more than 3,500 votes which originated from a phone inside Leinster House. IN a statement this evening RTÉ said that those votes alone wouldn’t have won it for him, and that if a number of calls is received from the same number, it is investigated.
• Feast your eyes on the wreckage of a World War II era Spitfire, which came down in Donegal in 1941. The American pilot on board bailed out, and the plane crashed into a bog. Today it was raised to the surface, and the Army Bomb Disposal Team made safe thousands of rounds of ammunition. There’s a pretty interesting story behind the pilot too.
• Music manager Louis Walsh has said that he won’t rest until he receives vindication, after allegations made about him last week were withdrawn. Walsh says it has been a “hugely distressing time” and that he has instructed his libel lawyer to “vigorously pursue legal action” against The Sun newspaper, which first reported the allegations.
• Did you know The Onion has never won a Pulitzer Prize. If you’re outraged, you’re not alone. Tom Hanks, Ricky Gervais and a cat are among those campaigning for a top award for the satirical news site. You can watch their video appeals here.
• As if a jet pack wasn’t good enough, how about one that runs on water? A new invention uses a pump to allow users to hover up to 28 feet above a body of water. The 100 litre tank allows two to three hours of flight. Move aside Mr. Bond!
• And finally, set your stun guns to AWWWWWWWWW….an Australian wildlife park has been showing its latest arrival, Boonda the baby koala. It’s the first Koala to be born to a mother who was also born in captivity…

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