Wallabies are given roses as a Valentine’s treat at Twycross Zoo, Atherston, Warwickshire. Picture date: Tuesday February 12, 2013. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#BARCLAYS: Barclays PLC has announced plans to cut at least 3,700 jobs in a major restructuring that follows a scandal-hit year for the UK bank, leaving a question mark over hundreds of Irish jobs. A UK spokesperson toldTheJournal.ie that while the 1,900 retail and banking jobs would be lost in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, a decision had not yet been taken as to where the other 1,800 jobs losses would occur.

#RESCUE: Four animal organisations worked together to undertake the biggest dog rescue in State history, removing more than 140 dogs from deplorable conditions in Leitrim. The dogs – mostly Bichon Frise crosses, King Charles Cavaliers and Shih Tzus - were found to have urine, faeces and sawdust embedded in their matted fur, while one dog had to have its eye removed.

#WINDFALL: The Government has said it is too early to predict how the terms of Budget 2014 will be influenced by last week’s deal liquidating IBRC and scrapping its promissory notes. There is no immediate benefit to the Exchequer for 2013 but the €1 billion saving could be used to avoid some of the €2 billion of spending cuts, or €1.1 billion in tax increases, that the Irish public otherwise would expect next year.

#PROVIDENCE: Oil and gas exploration company Providence Resources has announced today that it has surrendered its Foreshore Licence that was granted over an area off the coast of Dublin -saying that, following official discussions, it had become clear there were “certain elements” of the EU, EIA Directive that were not transposed correctly into law in 1999 by the government.

#HORSEMEAT: Ireland’s Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney is to chair an “informal” set of EU ministerial talks on the mislabelling of meat products following the horsmeat scandal hitting much of Europe. The meeting, to take place at 5.30pm CET tomorrow, aims to facilitate “an exchange of views and allow for sharing of information” between the most affected member states on the issue, including France, UK, Luxembourg, Sweden, Romania and Poland.

THINGS WE LOVED:

• There are 10 surprisingly consistent features of every Die Hard movie… can you name them without peeking?
• The fact that Sally is heading back to Summer Bay to help celebrate 25 years of the caravan park, the surf club and Yabbie Creek. Here are her best bits.
• This amazing video of a glacier ice-bridge in Argentina’s Patagonia region collapsing…

Uploaded by pabliogi

THINGS WE SHARED:

• What’s in a name? Is being a Tom or an Imogen more likely to make you a footballer or an Oxford undergraduate? The Guardian Digital Agency reveals all…
• They say we all have a book in us – but what if that book is a memoir and your relatives are worried about your interpretation of them? Alexander Stille writes about the strange task of taking a living, breathing person and flattening them down into a character in a book.

A Hindu devotee gets a shave after a bath at the Maha Kumbh festival in Allahabad, India, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. Millions of Hindu pilgrims are attending the festival, which is one of the world’s largest religious gatherings that lasts 55 days and falls every 12 years. During the festival pilgrims bathe in the holy Ganges River in a ritual they believe can wash away their sins. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

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