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A lone bagpiper leads the funeral procession of Seve Ballesteros in Pedrena, Spain earlier today. Pool/WPA Rota
Daily Fix

The Daily Fix: Wednesday

Our daily wrap-up of news and developments – today including a pretty unusual health experiment in Sweden…

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

  • European Affairs minister Lucinda Creighton has warned that next week’s summit of EU and Eurozone leaders is not likely to reach agreement on cutting Ireland’s interest rate. Creighton says it’s because the worries about a Greek default have pushed it off the agenda – but French sources say it’s part of a dispute over that corporation tax rate.
  • With this amount of visitors, you’d swear there was something wrong with us… not only is the Queen coming next week, but her prime minister David Cameron is also visiting on Thursday for a bilateral meeting with Enda Kenny.
  • Justice minister Alan Shatter has confirmed details of Ireland’s first ever visa waiver programme. People from 14 countries – mostly from eastern Europe and the Middle East – will be allowed to enter Ireland without paying for a €60 tourist visa, provided they already have a visa for the UK.
  • The surprise election success of the Euro-sceptic True Finns in last months Finnish general election hasn’t stopped other parties agreeing to support the Portuguese bailout. The country still hasn’t formed a new cabinet, almost a month after the election.
  • A documentary from North Mayo about the construction of the Corrib Gas Pipeline has won a prestigious European award. An Piopa (The Pipe), commissioned by TG4, took the Grand Prix at the Circom awards in Norway.
  • The Ugandan parliament has delayed discussing a controversial bill that would prescribe the death penalty for some gay people – but only because the parliament didn’t have a quorum. It’ll be discussed again on Friday, amid ongoing international outcry.
  • Legendary golfer and all-round gentleman Seve Ballesteros has been laid to rest in Spain, at a funeral attended by many of the game’s greats.
  • The half-built headquarters of Anglo Irish Bank on Dublin’s north quays are now less likely than ever to be completed – because the cranes at the site were dismantled today. Here’s a gallery.
  • Cambridge University has come up with a novel – and yet, typically predictable – way of trying to get students to drink less. They’re paying students up to £100 to stay sober and be on call at night-time to take care of drunken pals.
  • Having five a day can help lower the risk of breast cancer. Not five fruits, though – five cups of coffee.
  • Did you catch Richard Twomey’s awesome time-lapse video of Dublin earlier? Coming to a tourist ad near you soon, we hope.
  • With so much attention being given to Safefood’s new weight awareness campaign, we thought it might be fun to share this Swedish experiment with you. To try and encourage people to use the stairs into a tube station at Odenplan in the centre of Stockholm, they turned a staircase into a giant piano. The results? See for yourself.

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