Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really, really need to know with your egg and soldiers.
1. #GE11: With the date of the election now set, the focus has shifted to whether Brian Cowen will survive until March 11. There is speculation that while TDs are shellshocked now, the mood could change over the weekend. The Irish Times reports that Conor Lenihan and Michael Kennedy have both said the heave is “back on the agenda”.
2. #LABOUR: Labour will decide today whether to press ahead with its motion of no confidence in the government.
3. #AER LINGUS: Aer Lingus has drafted in Ryanair planes in an effort to operate a full flight schedule today as its dispute with staff continues. The Irish Times reports that Ryanair said it had rented four or five aircraft at preferential rates to the airline, and would be offering pilots and cabin crew under a process known as a “wet lease”. Yesterday, 34 flights to British and European destinations were cancelled. Staff who have been taken off the payroll plan to march to Aer Lingus headquarters today to hand in a letter.
4. #DEAD PASSENGER: A coroner has asked Bus Eireann to investigate how a man lay dead on a bus for almost two hours before he was discovered. Thirty-seven year old Jim McCarthy was found to have choked on a piece of raw pork chop, the Examiner reports.
5. #ABDUCTED: The mother of the two-year-old who was abducted yesterday outside a Limerick shop at 9.25 in the morning has spoken of her shock at what happened. “I was just screaming and roaring for anyone to help”.
6. #RECESSIONOMICS: Bad news: the cost of food, mortgages and insurance are all set to rise, the Examiner reports.
7. #BRITAIN: A 32-year-old man is still being held by British police in connection with the murder of Joanna Yeates. Police are searching the apartment of a 32 year old Dutch national, Vincent Tabak, which is next to the one where Yeates lived with her boyfriend, the BBC reports.
8. #BRITAIN: An officer who protected former British home secrertary Alan Johnson and his wife has been referred to Scotland Yard’s standards watchdog, just hours after Johnson stepped down as shadow chancellor on Thursday, citing family reasons, the BBC reports. Political editor Nick Robinson adds: “This is a deeply uncomfortable personal story which I fear Alan Johnson may see spread out in newspapers and will have to tackle in public as well as in private.” The Telegraph puts it more bluntly: “Alan Johnson stands down over claims of his wife’s love affair with her husband’s bodyguard.”
9. #DUBAI: The World, Dubai’s ambitiously constructed archipelago of islands – designed to look like all the countries of the world – is “falling back into the sea”, a property tribunal has heard. The islands are eroding and their navigation channels are clogging up with silt, the tribunal was told. Only 70 of the world’s 300 islands have been sold, and many have of the developers involved been beset by troubles. John O’Dolan, the owner of the company which bought Ireland for €28 million, and the island of England for €23.5 million died by suicide in February 2009.
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