1. #CHECHNYA: Two people have been killed and a number taken hostage after the Chechen parliament was stormed by two gunmen and a suicide bomber, local news agencies report.
2. #FRANCE: Pension protests have escalated into violent street clashes and petrol shortages in France. Protestors are due to take to the streets again today, and flights are likely to be affected. Aer Lingus and Ryanair are warning passengers to check with their airline for changes to schedules.
3. #SHELLSHOCKED: Opposition politicians continue to react to the briefings yesterday by the department of finance yesterday. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s officials revealed that the worst-case scenario was an adjustment of €15bn, as a result of lower predictions on the rate of growth in the economy. “What they told us is very challenging,” Joan Burton said. Sinn Fein’s Arthur Morgan told Morning Ireland today: “the cost of fixing the economy is simply too big over four years”.
4. #A-TEAM: The government’s most senior committee, which is devoted to renewing the economy, has met just six times this year, the Independent reveals – half the number for last year.
5. #RACISM: Four Polish men have been awarded between €4,000 and €10,000 by the Equality Tribunal, after they suffered “deliberate, blatant and unfettered racism” in their jobs as general operatives on an industrial site. The men were told they were not to speak Polish to each other on their lunch breaks, were called “f***ing lazy Poles” and were told that Polish food smelled and that Polish people smelled.
6. #BANAMA REPUBLIC: “I can’t cope anymore. There is just so much stress.” A couple who fell €400,000 into arrears had their house repossessed yesterday, as the mother of four broke down in tears and asked the court to enforce the repossession before Christmas.
7. #ROADS: An SUV driver who crashed into a rental car, killing a 51-year-old American travel agent, was barefoot and had made 83 calls on his mobile at the time of the fatal impact, an inquest was told yesterday. Driver Declan Gallagher of The Green, Moyglare, Maynooth said he could only recall talking to his five-year-old son, who was with him, and then his vehicle veering across the road.
8. #BAD IDEA: Three teachers in New York have been fired for flirting with their students on Facebook.
9. #COOL DAD: In an effort to show his son science was fun, and raise the bar for Dads everywhere, a New York father sent his iPhone into space with a HD camera and a weather balloon – and captured the most impressive amateur video ever of the stratosphere.
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