EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you really need to know as you start your day.
1. #DEFAULTERS: The Revenue has published its tax defaulters’ list for the first quarter of 2011. In total, 78 settlements were made with defaults, netting a tax income of €15.56million. Twelve of those settlements related to a Revenue inquiry into offshore funds.
2. #COMMITTEE: The Public Accounts Committee, which is responsible for checking departmental spending, will choose its new chair today from among opposition TDs. Fianna Fáil’s candidate John McGuinness is thought to be tied with Independent TD Shane Ross for the post, meaning Fine Gael and Labour could play the deciding role in electing the new chairperson.
3. #US WARNING: The head of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke has warned that the US debt ceiling must be raised as not to do so would be a costly mistake that could cause “severe disruptions in financial markets and the payments system”, according to the Christian Science Monitor. He also said the federal budget deficit needs to be reduced.
4. #PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s intelligence service has arrested five people believed to have provided information to the CIA in the weeks leading up to the US raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in the north of the country. Sources told the AP that one of the men is understood to have rented a safe house to US agents so they could observe bin Laden’s premises.
5. #WORST PLACES: A new global survey has said that Afghanistan is the most dangerous country in the world for women due to poor healthcare, extreme poverty and violence. The second most dangerous placed listed is the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over 400,000 women are reported to be raped each year, followed by Pakistan, India and Somalia. The survey was carried out by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
6. #AMMUNITION: An army bomb disposal team has seized a quantity of ammunition from a house in Clogherhead, Co Louth, following a bomb scare at the premises yesterday evening.
7. #SRI LANKA: Britain is pressing Sri Lanka to investigate alleged executions and sexual assaults carried out during the country’s civil war, the BBC reports. The allegations emerged after Channel 4 screened footage it said was previously unseen and showed evidence of the atrocities.
8. #ANGRY DOC: An angry doctor interrupted a visit by David Cameron and Nick Clegg to his hospital to give out to the TV crew for failing to observe the hospital’s hygiene policy due to their clothing, the Telegraph reports.
9. #SPIDER MAN: After a spate of disasters during its previews and a major re-write, the Spider Man musical has finally opened in New York. Hollywood Reporter says that the critics don’t seem terribly impressed, though, with one saying: “Act I sucks. Really, really bad. Act II sucks less.”
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