EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know with your morning coffee.
1. #ACTA: A march against a controversial bilateral anti-counterfeiting agreement, which Ireland has signed, is taking place in Cork city this afternoon.
The march was organised by 16-year-old Evin Doyle, who believes that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) challenges “our civil liberties and essential right to privacy.”
2.# CHINA: The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping are to discuss trade and investment, as well as human rights issues, during Xi’s three-day visit to Ireland this weekend, China Daily reports. Gilmore said the visit was an important opportunity for Ireland to strengthen and expand trade with the economic giant, RTÉ adds.
3. #ABORTION: A Private Members’ Bill that would provide limited access to abortion is to be debated in the Dáil next week. The Bill would make it legal for a woman to access an abortion when her life is in “real and substantial” danger, the Irish Times reports.
Earlier this week, over 50 groups, TDs, academics, and NGOs once again called on the government to legislate for the X case - twenty years to the day after the original High Court injunction which triggered a massive debate across Irish society.
4. #LYNN: Fugitive solicitor Michael Lynn is to be charged with fraud of up to €80 million. The Daily Mail revealed this morning that the Director of Public Prosecutions this week granted permission for the Garda Fraud Squad to pursue Lynn, who is reportedly living in Brazil.
5. #HSE: Almost 60,000 people across the country are now on hospital waiting lists, according to newly released figures by the HSE. Last December, 11,688 patients were facing waiting times of six months or more – a rise from 7,402 during the same period of December 2010, the Irish Independent reports.
6. #IRAN: The US and EU have expressed cautious optimism over an indication by Iran that it may be willing to enter negotiations with western powers regarding its controversial nuclear programme.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that Iran’s nuclear ambitions could start an arms race in the Middle East, reports the BBC.
7. #VATICAN: Some 22 new cardinals are to be created by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican later today. Of those new “princes of the Church” being made in the ceremony, a total of 18 could ultimately take part in the conclave that will elect a new Pope when Benedict dies, RTÉ reports.
8. #HITLER: A range of compelling evidence published in the Parisian magazine Le Point indicates that Adolf Hitler fathered a child with a French woman when he served as a soldier in WWI.
The supposed love-child, Jean-Marie Loret, went on to fight the Nazis in 1939 and wrote a book called ‘Your Father’s Name was Hitler’ in 1981 – after his mother told him he had been fathered by one of the most infamous men in modern memory. He died four years later, aged 67.
#9. EFFIN: The town of Effin, Limerick, has launched a website and t-shirt after finally being recognised by Facebook.
Previously, Facebook would not let the Effin locals declare the area as their hometown because the site believed the placename was “offensive” given its homophonic qualities with the word ‘F-ing’.
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