EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a roundup of the day’s main news – as well as any bits and pieces you may have missed.

In the race for the Áras…

• Seán Gallagher is now the frontrunner in the race to become the next President of Ireland, according to an opinion poll being published tomorrow. The Red C poll for the Sunday Business Post shows him gaining 18 per cent of the public support in just a week – and that he now leads Michael D Higgins by some 12 points, as the other five candidates all lose support.
• Martin McGuinness told a debate in Dublin earlier that he felt unfairly treated by Miriam O’Callaghan in Wednesday night’s Prime Time debate. He was speaking at SpunOut.ie’s debate on Earlsfort Terrace.

In the day’s other news…

• Demonstrations have been taking place around the world in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement which has now spread to other countries, including Ireland. The demonstrations in Rome have turned violent, as protesters clashed with police.
• An Irish foreign exchange student has been found dead in Spain. Shane O’Connor, an Erasmus student who was studying in Zaragosa, was found dead under a bridge in a motorway. It is thought the 21-year-old may have died while trying to help a pedestrian victim of a traffic accident.
• Six children are among a group of ten Irish people who have been arrested in Sydney, Australia over suspected visa infringements. It is thought the group had been working while on tourist visas.
• A second skeleton – this time, that of a child – has been found during excavation works for a pipe-laying exercise in Smithfield.
• Around a quarter of Ireland’s firefighters could be forced to quit their roles over a dispute with the Department of Social Welfare, according to a staff union. IFESA says some part-time firefighters, who earn €1 an hour, are being denied social welfare because their positions limit the jobs they can take on.
• Does it feel a bit crowded in here? That might be with good reason. The population of the planet is set to reach 7 billion in around a fortnight’s time, according to estimates from the UN.
• Earlier today we asked you for your captions as to what Sean Gallagher might have been betting on…

Our favourite – and the one we thought was the most timely – was Bodie Bates’ offering: “I bet €100 that I will #occupy Áras an Úachtaráin”.

• She may have won a Nobel peace prize last week, but Liberia’s president Ellen Sirleaf Johnson has been accused of fraud in the country’s latest presidential election. Opposition parties say 800,000 fraudulent ballot papers were used in the election this week – which is quite a few, when the country’s population is only 3.7 million.
• In Egypt, meanwhile, the military leaders have issued a decree prohibiting all forms of discrimination, including on the basis of religion – bowing to a longtime demand from protesters.
• The finance ministers of the world’s 20 major economies have challenged the IMF to take a greater role in solving the European debt crisis.
• Buzz off. Literally. Google has confirmed it’s scrapping its ill-fated ‘Buzz’ social network in order to concentrate on its younger and more successful offering, Google Plus.
• Coronation Street actress Betty Driver – known for her 42-year turn as pub barmaid Betty Turpin, the creator of a world-famous hotpot – has died at the age of 91.
• Wales rugby coach Warren Gatland says he feels “let down” by Irish referee Alain Rolland, after the latter controversially sent off his side’s captain in the Rugby World Cup semi-final this morning. The 14-man Welsh side went down to France by 9 points to 8.
• And finally: at this stage you may well have seen this by now, but even if you have, you’ll probably still find it pretty hilarious. It’s party time… North Korea style.

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