EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #NORTH KOREA: The government of North Korea has admitted that its much-anticipated rocket launch ended when the satellite broke into pieces and fell into the sea, failing to even enter the orbit after it took off from the secretive communist state. World leaders had denounced the launch which Pyongyang only admitted had failed hours after the US and South Korea said it had.
2. #ENDASLAP: TheJournal.ie can reveal that a grand total of €0 has been spent by the government on make-up for Taoiseach Enda Kenny since he took office over a year ago. While over €400 per week was spent on making former taoiseach Bertie Ahern beautiful while he led the country, Kenny has gone au-naturel.
3. #LABOUR: The junior coalition partner’s annual conference gets underway in Galway today with Labour party members descending on the west for the three-day event and Eamon Gilmore addressing delegates tomorrow night. Writing for TheJournal.ie today, MEP Nessa Childers warns that the party may pull out of government “if we cannot bring about real reform, rather than hold up a flawed notion that austerity alone will bring security”.
4. #SYRIA: Activists in Syria are reportng that there have been clashes between rebels and government forces near the border with Turkey in what AP reports is the first serious violation of the internationally brokered ceasefire that came into effect yesterday. Earlier, the UN said that it planned to send observers to monitor compliance as early as next week.
5. #TAGGING: The government is set to introduce electronic tagging of prisoners who are on temporary release. The Irish Prison Service has put out a tender for the new tagging system which would see a company supplying technology to monitor temporary release prisoners via GPS.
6. #HEALTHCARE: The outgoing president of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has criticised the government, saying that little has changed in its year in office. Dr Ronan Boland said in his final speech to the IMO annual conference yesterday that the promises of radical reform by health minister James Reilly had not yet been fulfilled and that reform “feels little closer than it did a year ago today”.
7. #CIGARETTES: The Revenue Commissioners has said that it will be a “number of months” before prosecutions can be brought following a massive cigarette seizure in Dublin yesterday. Around 38 million cigarettes, with a retail value of almost €15 million, were seized at Dublin Port yesterday in what is said to be the third largest seizure of counterfeit tobacco in the history of the State.
8. #SPAIN: It is not possible to rescue Spain if it needs an international bailout, the country’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has claimed, according to The Telegraph. The newly-elected leader has insisted his country does not need a bailout despite the country’s stocks and bonds taking a hit from investors globally this week amid ongoing fears about the stability of the eurozone.
9. #HERO MAYOR: The mayor of the US city of Newark was hailed a hero last night after he carried a woman out of a burning house in his neighbourhood, the New York Times reports. Cory Booker was coming home when he saw that his neighbour’s house was on fire. With no sign of the fire brigade, he and his security details went inside and rescued a woman. Suffering from smoke inhalation, he later tweeted: “I will b ok”.
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