Every afternoon, TheJournal.ie brings you 5 things you really need to know by 5pm.

1. #LIVERPOOL TAKEOVER: The sale of Liverpool Football club to New England Sports Ventures has been finalised this afternoon, with Tom Hicks and George Gillett withdrawing their injunction.

However, the club’s previous owners have said they are preparing to launch a bid to sue the remainder of the club’s directors for $1.6bn in damages…

2. # NORTHERN IRELAND: A body has been discovered during the search for one of the ‘Disappeared’ in Co Louth.

After a 16-month search for the body Gerard Evans, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains says it has located human remains.

Evans, 24, was last seen hitchhiking from Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, in May 1979.

3. # DISSIDENTS: Gardaí targeting the activities of dissident republicans have seized a pipe bomb, two shot guns and ammunition in Kiltipper in Tallaght, Co Dublin.

Gardaí from the Special Detective Unit, assisted by local units uncovered the weapons as part of an ongoing operation. It is the fourth such seizure to take place on either side of the border in one week.

4. #CONGO: A United Nations special envoy has said that government troops in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may be responsible for the rape and murder of civilians.

The news comes just weeks after it emerged that a mass-rape and looting spree took place in July and August  - just 32km from the UN’s peacekeeping base in DRC.

Margot Wallstrom has called on the DRC government to bring the perpetrators of sexual violence to justice.

5. #CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE: Could 213 seconds of silence take the Number 1 slot this Christmas?

A new Facebook campaign has launched a plan to pip the X Factor winner to the post this year by encouraging the sale of John Cage’s best known work 4’33″ - a recording of… silence.

The campaign has been called  ‘Cage Against the Machine’ - inspired by the similar anti-X Factor campaign last year, which saw Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name of take the Number 1 spot.