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A man goes through the process of breaking in a horse, against a leaden sky on the Curragh Plains in County Kildare today. Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland
Daily Fix

The Daily Fix: Wednesday

All the day’s main news as well as the bits and pieces that you may have missed…

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

  • The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that the government has a lot done but more to do as he launched the annual report on the Programme for Government which was agreed a year ago this week. Kenny cited stabilisation of the banking system, live register figures and improved confidence in the country’s finances as signs of progress.
  • More good news for the government came today in the form of new figures from the CSO which said that employment rose slightly in the last quarter of 2011, the first time this had happened since 2007.
  • The RTÉ Director General Noel Curran has apologised to former presidential candidate Sean Gallagher after a BAI report criticised the inclusion of a controversial tweet in a Frontline debate last October.
  • AIB has declined to comment on a report that it plans to raise the number of job cuts at the bank from 2,000 to 2,500. Bloomberg reported earlier that the State-owned financial institution is preparing the biggest layoff in Irish banking history.
  • “The Europe Train is leaving the station… we have to be on it,” so said Enda Kenny in the Dáil today. Here’s what he was talking about.
  • An Bord Pleanála has rejected planning permission for a major bypass of the N2 road in Slane, Co Meath. The move has been welcomed by An Taisce but criticised by some locally.

Coalition boys: Here’s Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore coming out of Government buildings earlier today to deliver their report on their first government together (Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

  • There has been a dramatic surge in the number of smartphones and tablets being used in Ireland according to a report out today. Nearly half the population now have a smartphone according to the data from Red C.
  • Speaking of technology, Apple has launched the third generation of its iPad tablet device in California today. Here’s all you need to know about it and details of when it goes on sale in Ireland.
  • Nine horses have been injured after they were struck by a train on railway tracks near Enniscorthy in Co Wexford earlier today.
  • Aid teams have entered the battered Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr in Syria. The International Community of the Red Cross confirmed in a tweet that teams have entered the area which has come under heavy shelling for weeks from forces loyal to president Bashar Assad.
  • A female torso has been recovered from a canal in London with reports that it is the remains of missing Eastenders actress Gemma McCluskie.
  • Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister Martin McGuinnes has said that he wants an all-Ireland soccer team. The former presidential candidate said that soccer would be “better served” by such an arrangement but said he was only expressing an opinion.
  • Have you heard the charming story of the man who robbed a woman and then called her up to ask her out on a date?
  • Finally, here’s a remarkable video from France taken last Sunday in which an avalanche totally demolished a ski-lift. Fortunately there were no reports of any injuries but several skiers were left danging in mid-air as they awaited rescuing:

YouTube: AP