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

1. #MORIARTY TRIBUNAL: Lawyers for businessmen Dermot Desmond and Denis O’Brien are this afternoon seeking a High Court injunction against the Moriarty Tribunal for appointing Michael McDowell SC onto its legal team.

The men claim that the appointment of the former Tánaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats is unfair given that O’Brien was a former donor to his party, who had called for reviews of the awarding of a mobile phone licence to O’Brien’s Esat – and which had been a former political opponent of Michael Lowry, who is also being investigated by the tribunal.

2. #COURTS: The trial of four gardaí accused of trespassing in a man’s flat and assaulting him has collapsed after new “serious material” was discovered by the prosecution and the Garda Ombudsman’s office.

Officers Alan Conlon, Claire Delaney, Eoin Murtagh and Sean O’Leary were accused of entering a flat on Basin Street, Dublin city centre on 17 February, 2008, and assaulting Owen Gaffney. Their trial is expected to be refixed at a later date.

3. #IRAQ: One of Saddam Hussein’s senior deputies will be hanged over his role in the 1991 murder of Shiite Muslims who had revolted against Saddam Hussein’s regime.

4. #LIFE OF BRIAN: A very real question mark hangs over Brian O’Driscoll’s availability for the start of the autumn international series against South Africa, after the captain missed Ireland training in Limerick this morning. The Leinster centre is still recovering from a hamstring injury picked up for Leinster almost a month ago – despite having had an outside chance of returning within a week of the injury.

5. #R.I.P.: The international community of clairvoyant sea creatures is in mourning (though, presumably, not in shock) after the death was announced of Paul the ‘Oracle’ Octopus. The English-born octopus died overnight in his tank at the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen. It’s not known whether Paul had predicted his own death: nobody had thought to ask him.