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

The coastline in Lahinch taking a battering by the Atlantic last night. (Pic: Alan Place photography)

IRELAND

• There was flooding and damage in many coastal areas after strong winds and high tides.
• Four NAMA buildings in Dublin worth a combined €165 million were sold to Google and investment firm Blackstone.
• The Chairman of Limerick City of Culture Pat Cox said that he never asked for his former assistant Patricia Ryan to be appointed as CEO.
• Almost 2,250 people were deported or removed from the State in the past 12 months, 210 were failed asylum seekers.
• Martin McGuinness claimed that ‘extreme loyalism’ is setting the unionist agenda on the Haass proposals.
• A woman was killed and an 8-year-old child was injured in a car crash in Kerry.
• Today FM presenter Matt Cooper has accompanied former basketball star Dennis Rodman to North Korea.
• 46 people were killed in work-related accidents over the course of 2013.
• Dublin achieved a clean rating in a litter survey for the first time in 18 years as Kilkenny was again named Ireland’s cleanest town.
• Angela Kerins, the chief executive of not-for-profit group Rehab, declined to disclose her current salary.
• A 22-year-old man died after being found unresponsive by walkers in Dunmore East, Co Waterford.
• Every secondary school will have access to high-speed broadband by September according to the Government.

WORLD

The coffin with the body of Portuguese soccer player legend Eusebio is placed in the middle of the pitch of the Benfica’s Luz stadium ahead of his funeral. Pic: AP Photo/Francisco Seco

#POLAR VORTEX: Millions across the US are experiencing freak weather plunging temperatures to -51 degrees Celsius.

#GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel fractured her pelvis in a skiing accident.

#IRAQ: Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for residents of Fallujah to expel “terrorists” holding the city to avoid an assault by security forces.

INNOVATION

• It’s estimated that there will be 54 million self-driving cars on the roads by 2035.
• A number of UK Tornado fighter jets have successfully flown using parts created through 3D printing technology.
• The International Consumer Electronics Show is underway in Las Vegas. Here’s Wired’s list of the coolest gadgets they’ve seen so far. [Wired]

PARTING SHOT

With the wind whipping up the seas into around Ireland’s coast, this real-time Earth wind map is worth checking out right now. Updated every three-hours using information from the Global Forecast System, it’s really pretty mesmerising.  [earth.nullschool.net]

Here’s what happened yesterday>