NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Pictured is the newly refurbished Clerys' clock in Dublin, which was unveiled today.

• Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney has backed his Fine Gael colleague Paschal Donohoe’s handling of the reveal that he did not declare services that were donated to him in 2016, saying the Public Expenditure Minister has “fully corrected the record”.
• A man pleaded pleaded guilty to murdering a vulnerable pensioner whose mutilated body was found “covered in blood” in the living room of his own home after he was attacked with an axe.
• Gardai seized 19 dogs as part of an animal rights investigation.
• The Government is considering new legislation this year that could allow Irish special forces to be dispatched on foreign missions.
• The High Court will rule next week on an application to sequester the assets of teacher Enoch Burke, over his ongoing refusal to comply with a High Court order not to attend at the secondary school where he is employed.
• A man who was arrested earlier today in the south of the country by gardaí investigating alleged match-fixing in the League of Ireland has been released without charge.
• The rate of inflation in Ireland is at 8.2%, down slightly compared with previous months.

INTERNATIONAL

Poppy having a sniff around in fresh snow near Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. . PA PA

#BELGIUM: A key suspect in a spreading EU corruption scandal, former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, has cut a deal to divulge information about countries involved and bribes made, Belgian prosecutors said today.

#FRANCE: Twelve people with links to a French far-right group went on trial today, accused of plotting to assassinate President Emmanuel Macron and commit a string of other attacks.

#BELARUS: The trial in absentia of Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya began today in Minsk – part of a crackdown by strongman president Alexander Lukashenko on critics who challenged his three-decade rule.

PARTING SHOT

For generations, people used Clery’s Clock on O’Connell Street as the de facto official meeting point in Dublin city centre. 

After being absent for years, the double-faced ornate clock ticked above people walking on the city’s main thoroughfare of Dublin city – once again.

The Journal’s Carl Kinsella visited the unveiling of the newly refurbished clock this afternoon. 

You can read all about it here.

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