EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of all the latest news as well as the bits and pieces that you may have missed.

• The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has insisted today that Ireland can still get an interest rate cut on its EU/IMF bailout following a week in which it became clear that the one per cent cut in interest Ireland had initially sought was unlikely to materialise. Gilmore was speaking in Tanzania where he met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
• Half of all Irish businesses are contracting or struggling to survive in the current economic climate, according to new research. Overheads such as the high cost of energy is cited as just one of the reasons for the difficulties being experienced by firms north and south of the border.
• Five men have been arrested and firearms recovered by gardaí as part of an ongoing investigating into organised crime. The men were stopped and arrested in Co Kildare last night and are being held at garda stations in Dublin.
• The first pictures of Gabrielle Giffords, the US congresswoman who was shot in the head in Arizona six months ago, have been published today. She is looking remarkably well considering her horrific head injuries were nearly fatal.
• In Syria, government forces are pushing into the key northern border town of Jisr al-Shughour today as they continue their crackdown on anti-goverment activists. Thousands have already fled the country into neighbouring Turkey.
• Meanwhile in Turkey early indications from voting there are that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government will win a third term in power. Around 50 million Turks have been casting their votes today into new transparent ballot boxes.
• Back home, Gay Mitchell’s decision to seek the Fine Gael nomination to run as president could complicate matters for the party’s leadership who it appeared had put their money on former European Parliament president Pat Cox.
• Today we’ve been asking you to caption photos of Government ministers arriving on the ‘austerity bus’ for the North-South Ministerial Council meeting at Farmleigh House in Dublin on Friday:

You’ve responded in your droves but the winner is Cian Hennessy who wrote: “You wait all day for a minister to turn up and then seven come along at once.”

• The sorry state of affairs that is US congressman Anthony Weiner’s life rumbles on with news today that he has entered a rehabilitation facility to try and become a “healthier person”. This after he posted lewd pictures of himself to girls he had never met on Facebook and Twitter. His party wants him to resign.
• More ash cloud stress with flights in Australia and New Zealand grounded as a result of the ash cloud billowing from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano. Qantas says about 8,000 passengers will be affected by its cancellations in and out of Melbourne in Australia.
• A woman who recited poems criticising Bahrain’s rulers has been sentenced to a year in prison by a special security court set up during the kingdom’s crackdown on Shiite protesters calling for greater rights.
• Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has decided he won’t vote in today’s referendum on issues including nuclear energy, water privatisation and whether ministers should have to attend a court case in which they’re being prosecuted.
• It has emerged that TV3 is suing RTÉ for €10 million in a row over transmission fees which TV3 says were much higher than TG4 paid to the state broadcaster.
• A book of condolences for Brian Lenihan will be opened at Government buildings in Dublin tomorrow ahead of his funeral on Tuesday.
• In sport today,Waterford’s John Mullane broke Limerick hearts with a goal in the final minute of normal time in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship semi-final. Our own Niall Kelly was following all the action.
• Finally, an Irishman is attempting the world record for guitar playing in Dublin over the next few days. Dave Browne is strumming his heart out at The Temple Bar pub aiming to beat the Guinness World Record of 100 consecutive hours of guitar playing. And that is as good an excuse as any to crack out this wonderful guitar solo by the legendary Eric Clapton:

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