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

Race for the Áras…

• Gay Mitchell has said that he will sign any bill put before him as long as it is constitutional and insisted he does not have any prejudice against gay people, responding to questions from listeners on RTÉ’s Today with Pat Kenny this morning.
• Mary Davis has launched her campaign in Dublin today, setting out her priorities for her first 100 days in office if she were elected in a speech to the media.
• Here’s a few pictures of what the candidates have been getting up to today and in the past few days as they travel across the country and meet the electorate.
• This evening, all eyes are on TV3 and the debate being hosted by Vincent Browne. We’ll be live-blogging all the latest tonight from 9pm.

In today’s other news…

• The introduction of the Universal Social Charge has seen a 25 per cent rise since last year in the government’s receipts from income tax, according to the latest Exchequer figures which also showed that Ireland’s deficit rocketed by €7.3 billion.
• Meanwhile, the Central Bank has revised its economic expectations for 2012, predicting that the economy will grow by only 1.8 per cent next year, about a quarter of one per cent less than it had previously said.
• A Galway woman has been found guilty of murdering her elderly neighbour in Co Down three years ago, RTÉ reports. Karen Walsh was found guilty of murdering 81-year-0ld Marie Rankin at the pensioner’s home. The court heard how Walsh beat Rankin persistently with a crucifix.
• Four more people have been arrested in connection with the murder of publican John Kenny last month.
• The new iPhone has been released but it’s not an iPhone 5 as had been widely expected. Here’s the early details on the new… iPhone 4S.
• The Taoiseach has faced criticism in the Dáil today over the amounts being paid to his special advisers. The opposition accused him of going back on an election pledge to cap their pay at under €100,000 a year.
• An anti-racism campaigner has hit out at Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union for not allowing him to play a gig on the same day as controversial British National Party leader Nick Girffin is due to visit the college.
• Take That were once five, then four, then five again and now they’re back to four members after Robbie Williams decided to focus on his solo career or maybe not. There’s been conflicting reports today about whether or not Robbie is ‘Back for Good’?

• Protests took place outside the offices of the ESB today over the imprisonment of Teresa Treacy who was jailed a few weeks ago for refusing to obey a court order allowing the ESB and Eirgrid onto her land to construct a power line.
• Seventy people have been killed following a bomb attack in Mogadishu, Somalia. Students and parents were among the dead after a truck bomb went off outside the Ministry of Education.
• Meanwhile, two Somali pirates have been given life in jail after they were convicted in a US court of being involved in the hijacking of a yacht off the African coast earlier this year which resulted in the  death of four US citizens.
• The UK’s Home Secretary has got herself into a bit of a flap today, a cat flap to be precise, over the curious case of the Human Rights Act and the illegal immigrant who could not be deported because of his pet cat… or not.
• Vladimir Putin may be immediately focussing on becoming president of Russia yet again but he’s also got his long-term sights set on forming a so-called Eurasian Union from next year which would consist of former Soviet states.
• A man has been jailed for going on a rampage in a sleepy Nottinghamshire village, driving through streets and a graveyard… in a stolen JCB.
• Finally, could the end be nigh for The Simpsons? Fresh reports today that the more than 20-year-old hit series could be coming to an acrimonious end after the current season.

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