EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you start your day.
1. #MARKETS: The ECB says it is prepared to buy EU bonds in an attempt to ease escalating pressure on the Eurozone. Meanwhile, despite the weekend’s emergency meetings, Asian markets have opened down this morning. The G7 group says it is ready to intervene in foreign exchange markets, if necessary, amid fears of a global financial meltdown.
2. #LONDON: Over 100 people were arrested after a second night of rioting and looting in London. Police said that “copycat criminal activity” broke out last night in Enfield, Walthamstow and Brixton, about 24 hours after riots in Tottenham. The rioting was initially sparked on Saturday night after a protest over the shooting dead of a 29-year-old man by police last week.
3. #GARDA DATA: The Irish Daily Mail (print edition) reports that the Data Protection Commissioner is investigating allegations that gardaí have been accessing the Pulse database to check up on their daughters’ boyfriends.
4. #SYRIA: As heavy violence against demonstrators continues in Syria, the Saudi king is recalling his ambassador to Damascus and has called on Syrian forces to stop the killing. Al Jazeera reports that King Abdullah said in a statement that “what is happening in Syria is not acceptable for Saudi Arabia”. Meanwhile, Syria’s Ministry of Defence website was apparently hacked overnight by the cyber hacking group Anonymous.
5. #OVERCROWDING: Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is considering implementing early-release for long-term prisoners in an effort to ease prison overcrowding, the Irish Times reports.
6. #CAR COSTS: The AA’s annual survey of motoring costs has found that the cost of running a family car is up 5.8 per cent in the past year. The increase is mostly due to rising fuel prices, although insurance and maintenance costs rose slightly between June in 2010 and 2011.
7. #DIAMONDS: The BBC says that its Panorama programme has discovered that Zimbabwean security forces are running a torture camp at the Marange diamond fields, which are thought to contain up to one-fifth of the world’s diamond deposits. It reports that people at the camp have been mauled by dogs, raped and lashed by whips while working on the mines.
8. #STABBING: Two people have been hospitalised after being stabbed in the Moyross area of Limerick last night, RTÉ reports.
9. #JACKIE: Jackie Onassis apparently believed Lyndon B Johnson, who became US president after the assassination of her husband John F Kennedy, was behind Kennedy’s killing. The Daily Mail says her daughter Caroline has agreed to the release of tapes featuring Jackie which contain the claims.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say