Every day, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really need to know with your morning coffee.
1. #OMBUDSMAN: Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman last month were at their highest level since the office was created. Complaints about insurance products remained at a record high, accounting for almost half the complaints, and there was a 40 per cent increase in mortgage-related complaints in 2010.
2. #BANKERS: Justice Minister Alan Shatter says bankers whose banks are in liquidation might not be entitled to contractually based retirement packages. He also said the payment of €3 million to Colm Doherty of AIB was “grossly immoral”, the Irish Times reports.
3. #SMILE: Dust off the barbecue: the weather over the Easter weekend is expected to be warm, dry and sunny with only a slight chance of drizzle.
4. #QUEEN’S VISIT: Gardaí are conducting interviews with residents of every household along the route that will be travelled by the Queen during her visit next month, as part of an extensive security operation. Residents of apartments on the north quays and business owners on Thomas St in Dublin have already been interviewed, the Irish Independent reports. Her itinerary includes trips to Aras an Uachtarain, the Garden of Remembrance and the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin – from there, Queen Elizabeth will travel to Kildare, Tipperary and Cork. Meanwhile, Joe Higgins says the Queen should pay her own ‘bed and board’ while she’s here.
5. #JOURNALISTS: Two award-winning photographers have now been killed in Misrata, Libya, it’s reported. In a Twitter update just before he died, one of the two, Tim Hetherington said there was “indiscriminate shelling” in Libya.
6. #WEBCAM MURDER: A Toronto man has been arrested for the murder of a Chinese student while her boyfriend watched helpless on his webcam.
7. #BIG BROTHER: iPhones and 3G iPads are secretely recording all details of their owners’ movements, technology security experts have claimed. The details are saved “to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised”. The recording of data seems to have started with the iOS4 upgrade, the Guardian reports.
8. #RTE: RTE’S new Director General Noel Curran has begun a major review of its structures and output, as the station expects to report a substantial deficit in funding this year. He confirmed that RTE will seek “strategic partnerships” within the Irish media aimed at sharing content, the Irish Times adds.
9. #MEET THE MIDDLETONS: The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have finally met Kate Middleton’s parents, after inviting them to lunch at Windsor Castle ahead of next week’s royal wedding. Cardinal Brady and other guests will be pleased to hear that, despite the presence of a large royal retinue, the meeting was described as having a “warm atmosphere”.
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