EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you really need to know as you start your day.
1. #DEBT BURDEN: Minister Michael Noonan will meet with his EU counterparts in Brussels to discuss the Greek debt crisis today and tomorrow. He is expected to push for any Greek debt burden-sharing arrangements to be extended to Ireland, according to the Sunday Business Post (print edition). An ECB source told the Sunday Times (subscription) that Noonan’s proposals to burn senior bondholders of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide couldn’t come at a worse time.
2. #LIBYA: The Libyan government says that five civilians have been killed in the latest NATO air strikes, which it says hit a residential area of Tripoli. NATO is investigating the claims.
3. #RACE FOR THE ÁRAS: The Labour Party will today choose which of Michael D Higgins, Fergus Finlay and Kathleen O’Meara will have its nomination for the presidential election. Meanwhile, publisher Niall O’Dowd will push to secure either the Sinn Féin or Fianna Fáil nomination this week, according to the Sunday Business Post (print).
4. #IRAQ: Iraq’s parliamentary speaker says that the amount of missing reconstruction funds could be as high as $18.7 billion, Al Jazeera reports. The money was withdrawn from a fund of Iraqi oil proceeds and was being safeguarded by the US.
5. #AWOL: Of the six TDs and one senator forced to return some of their expenses for failing to attend Leinster House and the Seanad for the required minimum of 100 days, former TD Jim McDaid came out on top. Having attended the Dáil for only 38 days last year, McDaid had to return €12,200, according to the Sunday Times (subscription).
6. #MICHAELA: A key prosecution witness at the trial of the men accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey has told the Irish Mail on Sunday (print) that he regrets not intervening in her death and says his “conscience is not clear”. Raj Theekoy told the paper that he wants her husband John McAreavey and her father Mickey Harte to know he is sorry.
7. #HEALTH CUTS: Limerick MidWestern Regional Hospital is facing serious curtailments to their A&E services. The Limerick facility will not be providing night A&E services from 11 July, according to the Sunday Business Post, while HSE managers have been warned that A&E services at Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda are “unsustainable”.
8. #RIP: Clarence Clemons, the saxophone player with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band has died from a stroke, aged 69. The New York Times describes Clemons as “one of rock’s most beloved sidemen”.
9. #MCILROY: Golfer Rory McIlroy, 22, is eight strokes ahead going into today’s final day at the US Open in Bethesda. He says that he’s becoming more and more comfortable with being in such a strong position, while Graeme McDowell says McIlroy is “playing golf the way it should be played”:
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