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

• In a story that looks set to run well into the New Year, a group of TDs today called for the household charge to be boycotted. While a group representing landlords has said that tenants will have to meet the cost of the €100 charge despite the legislation saying otherwise.
• Ireland has received its latest tranche of bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund. The Washington based organisation has paid out €3.9 billion, the second payment under the bailout deal agreed last year.
• A cross-party group of TDs and Senators are calling for an inquiry to be set up into allegations of sexual abuse at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda over a 30-year period.
• So what have you the internet user been Googling most this past year? Well Pippa Middleton, iPhone 5, and Jessie J of course. Here’s more of Irish people’s Googling habits.
• NAMA is hiring private detectives to hunt down any hidden riches that some of its debtors may be trying to hide. Those who are hiding something somewhere beware, the agency is advertising posts on a “panel for the provision of credit verification services”.
• War is over or at least officially as the United States’ mission in Iraq came to an end today. All US troops are expected to leave the country they invaded in 2003 by the end of this year.
• A famous Dublin landmark looks set for a makeover next year as Diageo today said it would be submitting plans to overhaul Guinness’s famous St James’s Gate headquarters in Dublin.
• We’ve all seen a Steven Spielberg movie but what is the most singular visual element of his films? Well it’s the face of course. Here’s why:

• Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood has accepted a major new Irish film award. The Space Cowboys star has accepted the IFA’s inaugural John Ford Award in California.
• Staying with the movies, our own Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson are among the nominees for the Golden Globes. Fassbender is up for Best Actor in a Drama for his role in the erotic film Shame while Gleeson’s performance in The Guard has earned him a Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical nomination.
• North and South Korea are at loggerheads again and its all because of a giant Christmas tree near the demilitarised zone on the border between the two nations.
• Rugby star Jamie Heaslip and actor Colin Farrell are among those taking part in the ISPCC’s latest anti-bullying campaign. See their striking posters here.
• Former French president Jacques Chirac has been convicted of embezzlement after a court found that he channelled public money to his party by creating false jobs in City Hall while he was Mayor of Paris in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
• How might your kids react if you gave them rubbish Christmas presents on purpose? Well American TV host Jimmy Kimmel decided to find out. Here’s what happened…
• Google is reportedly readying its rival to Apple’s Siri voice assistant. Codenamed after a Star Trek character, it’s generating buzz on the tech blogosphere. Probably because of the Star Trek reference…
• Finally, Vladimir Putin took to the Russian airwaves today in the wake of recent protests against his party’s election win. While he said protests against alleged vote rigging were acceptable in some cases, he had harsh words for his detractors including Senator John McCain. He implied McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam had made him go “nuts”. McCain responded on Twitter:

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