Painter Donagh Minihan from Steele and Company in Wexford gives another coat to a lamp on the Ha’penny Bridge in Dublin today. Image: Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

HERE ARE THE things you need to know as we round off the day in three easy steps.

THINGS WE LEARNED

#APRIL JONES: Police in Wales have been given until about 5pm tomorrow to question Mark Bridger, the only suspect in the April Jones murder investigation. Meanwhile, the search for the five-year-old continues around the Machynlleth area.

#THE TALK OF THE TOWN: Our own Enda Kenny has made the front cover of TIME magazine.

#RANK HYPOCRISY: Justice Minister Alan Shatter has accused a group of Éirígí and People Before Profit protesters of “rank hypocrisy” after they pelted Eamon Gilmore’s car with eggs outside a youth centre in Ballyfermot this morning.

#US JOBLESS: Barack Obama probably would have liked these figures to come out earlier this week but data released today showed unemployment levels have dropped to 7.8 per cent, America’s lowest in almost four years.

#HOME HELP: More bad news for those relying on Home Help hours emerged today as the HSE revealed proposals to shave off about €8 million of spending in the area – a cut equivalent to about 450,000 hours of services in the next three months.

#GANGLAND: In the news again today, Alan Shatter warned criminal gangs that they should not expect to avail of Garda protection.

THINGS WE LOVED

Image: Susan Ryan

• Guinness-flavoured crisps are a thing in the UK now. Could this be Ireland’s answer to Marmite? Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re ours.
• We love the Daily Edge’s Friday slideshow of cute owls A LOT but maybe not as passionately as we ADORE Buzzfeed’s 10 owls that look like England football manager Roy Hodgson.
• Sticking with cute animals, look who was introduced to visitors at a Berlin zoo today:

Two North Chinese Leopard cubs (Panthera pardus japonensis) look out of a basket as they are presented for the first time to public at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin. The North Chinese Leopard twins were born on 4 August 2012. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

THINGS WE SHARED

• When watching US Presidential election debates, many of us are distracted by body language, stutters or mentions of Big Bird so the accuracy of some of the statements being made is not to the forefront of our minds. The Daily Beast has our back though and brought some of Obama’s and Romney’s ‘facts’ from Wednesday night to the experts i.e. those people who are paid by big media groups to, well, check facts.
• Creepy and terrifying, yes, but this short from artist Brian Andrew is also fascinating. Using composite images of real x-rays, he has created hybrid creatures with bodies of beasts and skulls of humans – and brought them to life.

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