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

A deer overlooks the Dublin skyline from the Phoenix Park. Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

IRISH

• The fallout from Budget 2015 continued.
• Michael Noonan denied that it was ‘a series of smart-alecky tricks’.
• Brendan Howlin said child benefit could be increased by more than €5 next year.
• A pensioner was killed in a hit-and-run, and two died in collisions in Northern Ireland.
• The decision to close the Double Irish loophole put a €43 billion deal in jeopardy.
• A corner’s court heard details of the murder of Eamon Dunne. [RTÉ News]
• The Taoiseach denied he or his department leaked a story about a TD’s dispute over a diamond ring.
• Joan Burton said she was “delighted” that water charges protesters had expensive cameras. It emerged that gardaí also use expensive cameras.
• A man was arrested after €500,000 worth of cocaine was seized.
• RTÉ reversed the axing of its London bureau, and it’s not turning off Longwave 252 just yet.

WORLD

Kurdish people sit in formation to form the initials of the People'’s Protection Units (YPG), the main Kurdish militia in Syria, on a hilltop at the Turkey-Syria border, overlooking Kobani, in support of Syrian Kurds fighting the militants of Islamic State. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

#CHINA: The banning of the BBC News website was branded “deliberate censorship”.

#EBOLA: A second health worker in Texas tested positive, and WHO warned that 10,000 people a day could be contracting the virus by the end of this year.

#MEXICO: Bodies from a mass grave were found not to be missing students.

#SOUTH AFRICA: Reeva Steenkamp’s family spoke of the effect her death had on them.

#UNITED KINGDOM: A minister faced calls to resign after he said it’s “not worth” paying disabled people minimum wage.

INNOVATION

• A new massive security flaw in SSL was discovered. [Geek.com]
• Remember those people who want to live on Mars? They’d die after 68 days.
• An ‘exciting step forward’ was made in stem cell transplants to restore eyesight.
• Irish scientists revealed an invention that aims to protect Earth from space junk.

PARTING SHOT

A nuclear reactor that would fit in the back of a truck could be possible within a decade. [Quartz]

Originally published 9pm