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

In the race for the Áras…

• Dana has said she is ‘lucky to be alive’ after her car suffered a high-speed tyre blowout last night. Amid speculation the tyre could have been deliberately punctured, we’ve got the photos that show the dramatic extent of the damage.
• David Norris has said that the election of a gay president would send a “very clear” message that Ireland has moved into the 21st century. “It would signal something very important,” he added.
• In our daily series of questions for each of the presidential candidates, today they were asked: If you were speaking in China, what would you focus on?
• And we’ve been asking our readers who you thought came out on top in last night’s TG4 presidential debate. The results were surprisingly equally divided…

Artist Mark Mcnamara carved each of the seven presidential candidates into their own pumpkin, at the Fallon & Byrne store in Dublin (Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

In the day’s other news…

• Staff at insurance giant Aviva are set to vote on industrial action after the firm announced a worse-than-expected 950 job losses earlier today. The employees say they are being given little information about how and where the jobs will go.
• Boyband-turned-manband Westlife have split up after 14 years in the ballad business. Saying they had spent their entire adult lives together, the group’s four members announced plans to go their separate ways – after one last tour.
• Nama has come up with a list of 300-plus unused apartments on its books, which it says could be used to rehouse families evicted from the Priory Hall complex in north Dublin. However, it said some are not quite finished.
• France and Germany appear to be at loggerheads ahead of a crisis summit of European leaders this weekend – which some had hoped could come up with measures to tackle the Eurozone’s debt crisis.
• “We were right to spend the money” – that’s former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s view of the economic boom, as given in a new radio interview. We’ve picked out the best of the other Bertie-isms from the the full transcript.
• Did you think Ireland was boring? Well, not on the weather front – at least not according to this video slideshow of our, er, variable autumn climate.
• There were violent scenes today as attempted evictions at Dale Farm finally began. Bailiffs clashed with residents amid smoke and flames – we’ve got it all in photos.
• The Irish media has not shown solidarity with dropped radio presenter Sam Smyth, according to a Labour senator. Smyth is reportedly set to lose his show on Today FM, which is owned by telecoms magnate Denis O’Brien.
• Will you be painting your face for Halloween? Be careful what you put on it, says the Irish Medicines Board – which warned today some children’s face paints contain high lead levels with potentially toxic effects.
• And finally: if you were a crocodile, would you really try and eat an elephant?

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