Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine stories you need to know a little before 9am.

1. #MH17 Separatists have handed over the MH17 black boxes. Meanwhile, a train carrying the remains of 280 people who perished in the incident has finally been allowed to leave a rebel-held region – and militants have declared a truce around the crash site.

2. #ISRAEL The Gaza conflict will dominate an EU Foreign Affairs meeting today, which will be attended by Minister Charlie Flanagan. World leaders are in Cairo pushing for a peace deal, as the conflict enters its 15th day with 570 Palestinians and 27 Israelis dead.

3. #TRAGIC Post-mortems have been carried out on the bodies of two brothers, aged 20 and nine, who were found dead at their Sligo home. A number of this morning’s papers report that the parents of the boys were out when the incident occurred, returning to the family home to discover the tragic scene.

4. #TIGER KIDNAPPING Three people were taken hostage in Co Cavan at around 1.45am yesterday. They were taken to a quarry before the culprits demanded the alarm code for a local shop. The owner, one of the three hostages, was ordered at gunpoint to open the safe. Gardaí are investigating, says the Herald.

5. #HEALTHCARE Industrial action is due to be undertaken by IMPACT members working in the Limerick group of hospitals. This is in protest at the €250k salary paid to its chief operations manager, says RTÉ. The work-to-rule won’t affect service delivery, the union says.

6. #MURDER TRIAL Six months of CCTV footage is available to be viewed during the murder trial of Graham Dwyer, who is accused of murdering Elaine O’Hara in 2012, reports the Irish Independent. The trial is scheduled for 19 January 2015.

7. #CHRISTIANITY Tipperary South County Council must pay €70k to a worker who was sacked for talking about Christianity at work. The Equality Tribunal found that the council discriminated against Born Again Christian John McAteer on the grounds of his religion.

8. #YOUTUBE ROW The student who went to court to remove a video that falsely accused him of taxi fare evasion is facing a legal bill believed to be over €1m, the Irish Independent reports. A judge had previously found Eoin McKeogh had been defamed in the video.

9. #SURFER The search for missing Irish surfer Stuart Butler is continuing at Byron Bay in Australia. The 19-year-old was pulled underwater while surfing with two friends – who were both rescued – on Saturday. Police divers are due to work at the scene today.