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

• A Donegal man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison, with the final four suspended, for molesting and raping four boys between July 1990 and September 2005 at the school where he worked as a caretaker. The court heard that Michael Ferry, 55, from Carrick Boyle, Gweedore, Co Donegal, had returned to work at the school despite having been convicted of sexually abusing a child in 2002.
• AIB has increased saving and lending rates but, as yet, has not increased the interest on standard variable rate mortgages.
• A report commissioned by the VHI has concluded that breaking up the state-owned institution would cause the loss of hundreds of millions of euro.
• The Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has come under fire today for suggesting that some people are claiming social welfare payments as a “lifestyle choice”. Sinn Féin’s Social Protection Spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh said that the comments were “particularly galling” at a time when “the government has not filled even one of its promised additional 15,000 positions in training, work experience and educational opportunities for the unemployed.”
• McDonald’s has applied for permission to install a three-storey franchise on Temple Bar Square, but local businesses don’t seem keen about the fast-food giant setting up in the neighbourhood – saying they will be examining the proposal in detail.
• A former News of the World journalist – who was the first person to blow the whistle on phone hacking at the newspaper – has been found dead. Sean Hoare was discovered deceased at his Hertfordshire home earlier today. Local police said that his death is being treated as “unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious”.

• The latest person to resign in connection with the News International phone hacking scandal is John Yates, who had served as the Metropolitan Police’s assistant commissioner.
• Two men have been arrested over the murder of Dublin man Liam Murray, who was shot dead at his home in Rathfarnham in 2009.
• Nearly 1,000 plastic ducks took to the River Liffey yesterday for a Niall Mellon Township fundraising event. Check out TheJournal.ie‘s guide on how to… Stage a duck race.
• One of the world’s ‘most wanted’ Nazi war crime suspects, 97-year-old Sandor Kepiro, has been cleared of war crimes charges stemming from a raid by Hungarian forces that killed 35 people in Serbia during World War II.
• The standoff on US debt continues between Barrack Obama’s Democrats and the majority seat holders in Congress, the Republicans. Obama’s opponents say they won’t agree to an increase, unless he promises to cut spending and leaves taxation alone.
• The event that eclipsed the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton – and even the death of Osama bin Laden – for tweets per second has been confirmed: the Women’s World Cup final. According to Twitter the final drew a staggering 7,196 tweets per second.
• Website The New Republic has drawn some lighthearted parallels between the main players in the phone-hacking scandal and the tales of Harry Potter - for example, between journalist Nick Davies and Harry Potter for their “equal parts bravery and idealism”; Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and Albus Dumbledore, who both serve as “mentor and protector”; and school caretaker Argus Filch and Lachlann Murdoch (who earns the dubious honour of “least evil Murdoch”). No prizes for guessing who is likened to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named…

For those uninitiated in naval matters, the method for launching ships may come as quite a shock… prepare for some stomach-flipping moments watching this:

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