EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the day’s main news stories as well as the bits and pieces you may have missed.

• The Union of Students in Ireland has criticised government proposals to abolish all financial support for new postgraduate students as of next year. The USI says that cutting the funding will drive students to seek employment or research opportunities overseas.
• Meanwhile, as spending cut speculation mounts ahead of next month’s Budget 2012 announcement, here’s a round-up of the cuts expected to be announced and the petitions already being lodged with Minsiter Noonan by a range of organisations and lobby groups.
• Silvio Berlusconi resigned as prime minister of Italy yesterday – we’ve been looking back over some of his most memorable moments.
• A website which aims to facilitate marital infidelity has told TheJournal.ie that it has over 41,000 signed up members in Ireland. AshleyMadison.com site founder and CEO Noel Biderman said that the site does not encourage affairs, but instead helps people limit the collateral damage when they do have one.
• More residents of the Thai capital Bangkok have been urged to leave their homes amid rising floodwater in parts of the city. Here are some of the latest photos from the flood-stricken areas of Bangkok.
• At the latest GOP debate in the US last night, some of the candidates vying for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination differed over whether or not waterboarding is torture.
• From smug swans and bossy donkeys to custard shortages, check out some of the weirdest newspaper headlines ever in our slideshow.

The Associated Press has posted footage of this unfortunate feline who spent at least three days at the top of a 30 foot cactus in Arizona this week:

• All eyes will be on the euro when markets open tomorrow, but will the ECB decide to step in and intervene in the ongoing debt crisis?
• As Guaranteed Irish and the Craft Council of Ireland launch their ‘buy Irish’ campaigns, we’ve been asking if you will be making an effort to buy Irish this Christmas. At the time of writing, over half said yes (57 per cent), while 26 per cent said no. Quite a few of you mentioned in the comments section that value for money was the central concern in your shopping choices.
• And continuing on the Christmas theme, Irish rugby star Gordon D’Arcy was on hand to light the Christmas bulbs along Henry Street in Dublin today (check out the photos here).
• Make the most of your Sunday evening by settling down into a comfortable chair and treating yourself to this week’s 7 Deadly Reads.

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