Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really need to know by 9am.
1. #BIG FREEZE: The cold weather is with us for another week, according to Met Éireann, with ice becoming a more serious problem than the snow. AA Roadwatch says that road temperatures are well below zero and motorists should take extra care in case of black ice today.
2. #EUROZONE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened to pull Germany out of the euro at an EU summit in late-October, according to the Guardian. Merkel was arguing over the creation of a permanent system for dealing with future sovereign debt crises at the time, according to the report.
3. #DEFICIT: Ireland’s deficit for 2010 will be 32% for 2010 – the highest in the eurozone, according to RTÉ. Department of Finance figures show that the deficit is expected to be €18.7bn for this year.
4. #BUDGET 2011: A MilwardBrown/Lansdowne poll carried out for the Irish Examiner shows that the majority questioned say that there are too many TDs. 80% of respondents also thought not cutting public sector jobs under the Croke Park Agreement was not realistic.
5. #SPAIN: The Spanish government ordered the military to take over the country’s air traffic control last night after civilian traffic controllers called in sick en masse in an unauthorised strike, according to the BBC. Tens of thousands of travellers remain stranded at Spanish airports as much of its airspace remains closed.
6. #ISRAEL: The UN has joined several countries in offering support to Israel in tackling huge forest fires which have killed at least 41 people in the north, according to Al Jazeera. Turkey’s aid to Israel in fighting the fires is understood to have helped bridge a diplomatic stalemate between the two countries since Israeli troops killed nine Turkish people in the Gaza blockade.
7. #MEXICO: Mexican authorities have arrested and detained a 14-year-old boy who allegedly helped a drug gang behead four people, the AP reports.
8. #WIKILEAKS: Newly released files show that the US considered the UK paranoid about its relationship with the US, according to the Guardian. Other files show that Yemen offered the US an ‘open door’ to attack al-Qaeda on its soil.
9. #TEEN SAILOR: Dutch teen Laura Dekker says she is setting off across the Atlantic as part of her plan to sail solo around the world in stages. A Dutch court had earlier blocked her plans to set sail before she agreed to change her original plan to undertake a non-stop journey.
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