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GOOD MORNING

The 9 at 9 Nine things you really need to know by 9am: ministerial pay cuts; poll shows more prefer Bruton as FG leader than Kenny; and increased volcanic activity in Ecuador sparks evacuation.

Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really need to know by 9am.

1. #BRRRRRR: It’s another cold and icy morning out there. AA Roadwatch warns of severe black ice in many parts of the country this morning, and Met Éireann says that fog will be slow to clear and could linger all day in the midlands.

2. #BUDGET 2011: Ministers and senior civil servants face pay cuts of up to €20,000 a year, according to the Sunday Times. The paper reports that public sector salaries could be capped at between €200,000 and €220,000, while the Sunday Tribune puts that figure at €250,000. The cap could have repercussions for RTÉ salaries, too, according to the Tribune.

3. #POLITICS: 26% of people questioned for a  Sunday Times/Red C poll say they would prefer Eamon Gilmore to be Taoiseach in a Fine Gael/Labour coalition government. However, 25% would prefer to see Richard Bruton become Taoiseach, rather than Enda Kenny (19%).

4. #BONDHOLDERS: IMF representatives have indicated that bondholders could be forced to share some of the losses in Irish banks in the future, according to the Sunday Business Post. SBP sources say divisions between the ECB and IMF were evident throughout the Irish bailout negotiations.

5. #WIKILEAKS: The Swiss host of the WikiLeaks site has rejected international pressure to stop hosting the site, according to the Guardian, as AP reports emerge that the site’s main server in France has gone offline. On Friday, Internet payment provider PayPal pulled the WikiLeaks donation account over claims it had breached its terms of service.

6. #ECUADOR: Authorities in Ecuador have been evacuating people from the area near the Tungurahua volcano after the volcano began throwing ash, gas and extremely hot rock from its crater yesterday, the AP reports.

7. #UK: A 25-year-old Russian woman working as a parliamentary aid to British MP Mike Hancock has been taken into custody in Britain amid claims she is spying for Russia, the BBC and Sunday Times reports. Hancock says his assistant has done nothing wrong.

8. #REGRETS: Mary Robinson says that Irish people have only themselves to blame for the economic crisis, saying “greed was the main problem”. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Robinson also says she regrets leaving the Irish presidency before her term had been fully served to take up a human rights post at the UN.

9. #IVORY COAST: Former South African president Thabo Mbeki will travel to the Ivory Coast on behalf of the African Union to help mediate in a political crisis after the country’s recent elections, Al Jazeera reports. The initial election result was overturned in the incumbent’s favour, according to the BBC.