A sculpture entitled “Drift, 2009″ by Australian artist Ron Mueck is displayed during the opening day for his exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

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

THINGS WE LEARNED

#CROKE PARK II: The public service pay deal was rejected this afternoon as members of Siptu, the INMO, the IMO and Unite all voted against the extension of the agreement. Responding to the news, Minister Brendan Howlin warned that “the arithmetic hasn’t changed” and money still has to be found.

#BOSTON MARATHON: It is still unclear who was behind the “cowardly” act of terror at the Boston City Marathon finish line yesterday, according to US President Barack Obama but the FBI has pledged to find those responsible for the deaths of three people, including an 8-year-old boy.

The bombs used were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage, according to sources today.

#ASSAULTS: Gardaí in Dublin have arrested two men in relation to a number of assaults that took place in the Grafton Street area in the early hours of this morning. Two men and a woman were injured in the attacks.

#SEISMIC: At least 40 people were killed in a powerful earthquake in southeast Iran today.

#HORSEMEAT: Ireland’s beef industry has been given a clean bill of health by the European Commission as all 50 test results published today were negative for horse DNA.

#SYMPHYSIOTOMY: The government said it will not oppose a Private Members Bill which calls for the lifting of the Statute of Limitations for survivors of symphysiotomy. The legislation is being brought in the Dáil tonight. Symphysiotomy was a surgical procedure used in Irish maternity hospitals until 1982. It involved the unnecessary unhinging of the patient’s pelvis during or after child birth.

THINGS WE LOVED

Visitors look at a sculpture entitled “Still Life, 2009″ by Australian artist Ron Mueck during the opening day for his exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris, Tuesday April 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

• Photographer Robert Landau grew up in Los Angeles in the 1960s. According to NME, he spent some time snapping the advertisements on Sunset Strip. “What he ended up with was a love letter written in images, an affectionate record of the golden age of the album cover and a series of snapshots laying bare the music industry’s glorious hubris,” writes Matthew Horton, who has collected 12 of the best.
• The love and support shown by New York City to Boston residents as they woke up to the reality of yesterday’s tragedy, as encompassed in this New York Daily News cartoon by Bill Bramhall.

• Mr Cake and his resignation cake. Everyone should say everything with cake.

Can’t see the image? Try reloading this post (Imgur)

THINGS WE SHARED

Peace is written on the path in front of the Richard house in the Dorchester neighbourhood of Boston. Martin Richard, 8, was killed in Monday’s bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

• You have probably seen the above photo on social media and read that Chief Raoni Metuktire of Brazil’s Kayapó tribe is crying because he received bad news about Brazil’s green light for the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam which would devastate communities. This is the true story behind the image.
• Tomorrow, TIME magazine will announced the winner of its Influential Face-Off. The two finalists are Lady GaGa and Aung San Suu Kyi. Really.
• This social experiment asked people to describe themselves and an artist sketched their description. Then a stranger described the same subject. See the results:

(Credit: John X. Carey)