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GOOD MORNING

The 9 at 9 Nine things you need to know this morning…

EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning cup of coffee

1. #COURTS: A man will appear in court tomorrow charged in connection with the death of a man who was fatally struck by a bus on the junction of Dawson Street and Nassau Street in Dublin on Thursday.

2. #BUDGET 2013: The decision to cut the respite care grant by €325 in the Budget this week is continuing to cause controversy with over a dozen Fine Gael TDs urging the government to reconsider the measure. The Sunday Times carries the names of some Fine Gael deputies who are unhappy while another, Regina Doherty, told TheJournal.ie last night she was “sickened” by the cut.

3. #EGYPT: Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi has annulled a decree which expanded his powers amid angry protests in Cairo and other cities. Morsi’s government still intends to press ahead with a referendum on a new constitution later this week despite opposition protesters accusing him of acting like a dictator.

4. #CHAVEZ: Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez has cast fresh doubt over his future just a few months after being re-elected after revealing that he needs a new cancer operation having already undergone several treatments last year. Significantly he has also named a successor saying that if his health fails and there is new elections, his supporters should vote for vice president Nicolas Maduro.

5. #BELFAST: A police officer has been hospitalised after he was injured in more clashes with loyalists in Belfast, BBC News reports. There have been angry protests in the Northern Ireland city all week after the local authority controversially voted to restrict the flying of the union flag over city hall.

6. #ABORTION: A US anti-abortion group, the Pro-Life Action League, has said that similar groups in Ireland are due a financial boost from fundraising in the States, the Sunday Business Post reports. Members of the league will be travelling to Ireland to take part in anti-abortion protests as the government here looks set to respond in some way to the expert group on abortion’s recent report.

7. #PROMISSORY NOTE: Negotiations over the restructuring of the controversial Anglo Irish Bank promissory note are at an “advanced stage”, the Sunday Business Post reports. Cliff Taylor writes that the European Central Bank and the Irish government are continuing talks but a a successful conclusion is still uncertain.

8. #PRANK: Independent TD Mattie McGrath has admitted he fell “hook, line and sinker” for a prank played by five TDs who pretended to offer free pizza to McGrath and protesters staging a sit-in at the headquarters of Friends First earlier this week, the Sunday Independent reports. The Irish Times had reported yesterday how five TDs in the Dáil bar pretended to be from Pizza Hut and offered free pizza to McGrath and protesters in a prank phone call.

9. #FREE STATE: Finally, this week may have been dominated by the Budget but it was also the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Irish Free State, a troubled and violent time in Irish history which we’ve been looking back at.

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