NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a roundup of today’s news…

Pic: Julien Behal/PA Wire

IRISH

• The abortion legislation has passed its first vote in the Seanad with 15 senators opposed to the bill.
• The government is planning to send as many as 150 troops to Syria in the autumn.
• Alan Shatter can’t do anything about the Magdalene orders refusing to contribute to the State compensation fund.
• David Norris has withdrawn remarks he made about a Fine Gael TD he made in the Seanad yesterday.
• Over 500 jobs are at risk after DIY store Homebase went into examinership today.
• A coroner has recorded an open verdict at the inquest (above) into the death of model Katy French nearly six years ago [RTÉ]
• Man arrested over the fire which forced the evacuation of an apartment complex in Clondalkin last week.
• Nearly 33,000 people will be getting welfare payments that were due today tomorrow. Here’s why.
• Structures dating back to 1916 on Dublin’s historic Moore Street will not be abolished.
• More bad news for Ulster Bank customers, here are their new overdraft fees.
• Old bones have been found at the site of the Mater Hospital redevelopment in Dublin.

WORLD

Pic: Ken Roth/Human Rights Watch

#SNOWDEN: US fugitive/whistleblower Edward Snowden has formally applied for temporary asylum in Russia [The Guardian]

#BREIVIK: A Norwegian musician with links to mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has been arrested in France. [BBC]

#JAPAN: Police in Japan have busted a prostitution service which specialises in women weighing as much 23.5 stone.

INNOVATION

• The increasingly popular Airbnb might be about to set up shop in Ireland.
• Scientists in Bristol have developed a way of charging a mobile phone… using urine [BBC]

PARTING SHOT

When Hazel Hammersley, 2, put a message on the window of her hospital room in LA requesting pizza she probably didn’t expect this response.

Here’s what happened yesterday… >