EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you start your day.
1. #CUTS: Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore says further cuts in public spending can be expected in order to create a leaner public service, and that every cut could not be resisted or the government would not succeed in fixing what was broken, RTÉ reports. Meanwhile, the Sunday Business Post (print edition) says more spending cuts are looming for government departments.
2. #WINNING: Team Ireland athletes competed in 11 events yesterday and pushed its Special Olympics medal haul up to 87.
3. #RACE FOR THE ÁRAS: The Sunday Independent’s latest opinion poll shows Independent Senator Norris still out in front among the declared presidential candidates, with Labour’s Michael D Higgins remaining in second. Pat Cox has pulled ahead of Mairéad McGuinness as the leading Fine Gael contender. Meanwhile, the Irish Mail on Sunday (print edition) says senior Fianna Fáil figures are urging former minister Eamonn O’Cuiv to run.
4. #LIBYA: The African Union has called on its members to ignore the International Criminal Court’s warrant for Gaddafi’s arrest, meaning Gaddafi could move freely around the continent. Hillary Clinton said yesterday that Gaddafi’s threats of attacks on Europe would not deter the mission to protect Libyan civilians, the AP reports.
5. #GHOST TRAINING: A British firm says it wants to set up pilot projects under which unemployed apprentices would be taken off the housing list and the Live Register to work on unfinished ghost estate houses. At the end of the scheme, participants will have the option to rent or buy the house they’ve worked on, according to the Sunday Independent.
6. #MORTGAGES: Around 200,000 mortgage holders around Ireland will be affected by a rate hike above what the ECB is expected to introduce this month, the Sunday Business Post reports (in print).
7. #FIRST COMMUNION: More than one in ten families in Ireland turn to the state for assistance in paying the costs of their child’s First Holy Communion, according to a report in the Sunday Times (print edition).
8. #RADIOHEAD: The group Radiohead is stepping into China’s censured cyberspace, despite its previous criticism of the country’s human rights record, by launching a microblog on the site of China’s leading internet portal Sina.com. Such blogs are required to delete posts considered politically sensitive.
9. #DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME: Finnish couple Taisto Miettinen and Kristiina Haapanen have won the annual wife-carrying competition for the third year in a row in Sonkajarvi, Finland. Here they are, zooming around the course to finish first:
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