• A husband and wife died, and their daughter injured, in a stabbing in Cork.
• President Michael D Higgins signed the Water Services Bill into law.
• It prompted a small protest outside Áras an Uachtaráin.
• It was really cold, and it’s going to get even colder.
• A man died in a mobile home fire.
• Hundreds of Irish holidaymakers were trapped at Chambery Airport.
• It was revealed that children receiving some payments from their parents could be taxed.
• A 12-year-old was arrested over the death of a man who was attack with a guitar in Belfast.
• Detectives renewed an appeal for information about a 1996 murder.
• The State Papers covered everything from rubber-bullets, to selling water to Saudi Arabia.

INTERNATIONAL

Jacko the pony enjoys the snow in a field in Langley, near Macclesfield. PA Wire / Press Association Images PA Wire / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

#QZ8501: The search continued for an AirAsia plane that disappeared off radar last night.

#ADRIATIC SEA: Hundreds are still trapped on board a burning ferry. One body has been recovered.

#AFGHANISTAN: The war officially came to an end.

#GAZA: Hamas blocked a group of children whose parents had died in recent conflict from travelling to Israel on a conciliatory trip. [Haaretz]

INNOVATION

• Sony admitted the Playstation network was hacked.
• Nasa is working on airship-like balloons to hover over the surface of Venus. [The Independent]
• Whooping cough is ‘evolving fast’, and could become resistant to existing vaccines. [BBC News]

PARTING SHOT

Yes yes yes, we know Christmas is over, but here, have a video of a dog that’s really good at opening presents.