Meerkats look at a beetroot flavoured love heart at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling. Picture date: Thursday February 14, 2013. Photo credit should read: Andrew Milligan /PA Wire

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#ROBO-CALLS: Ireland’s communications and data privacy regulators have determined that automated phone calls targeted at Irish phone numbers late last year actually came from the United States – meaning they are powerless to take action against them. During the calls, an automated message carried indirect quotes from a veteran obstetrician from Galway concerning abortion.

#PISTORIUS: Olympian athlete Oscar Pistorius, 26, is to spend tonight in jail ahead of a court appearance tomorrow after being charged in connection with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Model Steencamp, 30, was found dead at Pistorius’s home in Silver Lakes, Pretoria in the early hours of this morning, reportedly shot four times in the upper body and head.

#GARDAÍ: The body representing rank and file members of the Garda Siochána, the Garda Representative Association, has formally passed a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter. The association called on the Garda commissioner to “publicly addresses the negative effect to Garda morale resulting from speculative proposals to cut Garda pay and other proposed changes to working conditions”.

#MEAT: The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association president, Gabriel Gilmartin and Fine Gael TD, Paudie Coffey have both called for permanent DNA testing throughout the meat processing industry in Europe. The calls follow an announcement by the European Commission concerning the implementation of a three-month programme of random DNA testing on meat products.

#EILEEN DOHERTY: Today, 59-year-old Robert Rodgers was convicted for the sectarian murder of 19-year-old Eileen Doherty in Belfast in 40 years ago. Eileen was shot three times in the head by gunmen who hijacked a taxi she was taking home from the Ormeau Road to Andersonstown in September 1973.

THINGS WE LOVED:

• Playing the European Parliament’s equivalent of Where’s Wally? with this rather excellent panoramic photograph…
• This Valentine’s Day message by astronaut Chris Hadfield from the International Space Station.
• Speaking of Twitter and Valentine’s Day – who on the microblogging site has stolen your heart (or, at least, most of your attention)? Find out with Twit Amore…
• A kiss is just a kiss – or is it? It really all depends on who’s nearby with a camera (not as dodgy as it sounds, trust us).

Baltimore hairdresser Janet Stephens was so captivated by the gravity-defying hairstyle of a bust of the Roman empress Julia Domna that she embarked upon a new career – hair archaeology. And she’s very good at it, too.

Uploaded by WSJDigitalNetwork

THINGS WE SHARED:

• If you’re not currently loved-up, ‘V Day’ can feel like a bit of kick in the teeth. But just bear in mind, not all those smiling couples are as happy as you assume. You’re better to be single and happy than in a relationship that’s not right for you, relationship counsellor Tony Moore reminds us.
• The Guardian’s coverage of events around the world to mark One Billion Rising – a day of action to protest against violence against girls and women.
• Everyone judges a book by its cover (whether they admit it or not). Here, two centuries of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice shows the  fluctuating mores of society – while this list of US v UK book covers demonstrates how readers’ design tastes alter in their journey over the Atlantic.

A horse pulled cart passing by a sunflower field, In Sieu Sfantu, outside Bucharest, Romania. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

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