(Image: Sam Boal/ Photocall Ireland)

NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of today’s news…

IRELAND

• Alan Shatter was called on to comment on a report of bugging at the Garda Ombudsman headquarters.
• Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said there’s a danger marriage will lose its originality of gay and lesbian couples are allowed to do it.
• Jim Higgins and Mairead McGuinness were named as Fine Gael European election candidates.
• Emer Costello was confirmed as Labour’s Dublin candidate for the elections.
• The Minister for Justice has received the final report on the death of Mountjoy prisoner Gary Douch. [RTÉ]
• 30 former AIB senior executive were asked to take pension reductions.
• People are not happy about Will Leahy being moved from 2fm’s Drivetime slot.

WORLD

Visitors walk in the snow at Enoshima Shrine in Fujisawa, near Tokyo (Image: Shizuo Kambayashi/AP/PA).

#JAPAN: 11 people were killed and over 1,000 injured after the heaviest snow in decades fell in Japan.

#SWITZERLAND: Just over half of voters have backed a referendum proposal to reinstate strict quotas for immigration from EU countries. [BBC]

#UNITED STATES: The government expanded legal rights for couples in same-sex marriages so all federal courtrooms and prisons will now recognise them.

#DENMARK: A zoo in Copenhagen killed a healthy six-month-old giraffe and plans to feed it to the tigers.

INNOVATION

• The creator of the infuriatingly difficult game Flappy Bird has decided to remove it from the app stores today because it’s ruining his life. [Daily Edge]
• Are you ever frustrated by not being able to find exactly what you’re looking for in a Google search? We may be able to help you with that…

PARTING SHOT

It’s 50 years since The Beatles first performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in the US. We might think Justin Bieber and One Direction fans can be a bit hysterical, but, as you can see in this video from TIME, Beatles fans invented it.