(Image: Niall Carson)

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

IRISH

• Phil Hogan received an email with a threat to burn down his house.
• Elderly people were warned about a gang targeting people as they withdraw money from ATMs.
• 70 business people slept rough to raise money for homelessness.
• The relative of British IRA victims clashed in London after a speech by Gerry Adams. [RTÉ]
• Donations have flooded in to replace the stolen wheelchair of a five-year-old who has Cerebral Palsy.
• The Greek police have refused to provide the Irish embassy in Athens with any information regarding the detention and conviction of an Irishwoman’s husband.
• Pensioners are planning to protest next week against Budget cuts.
• A man in Belfast was shot in the buttock.
• The Titanic violin sold for €1 million at an auction.

Rescue personnel work around the debris of a small plane which crashed in a field in Marchovelette, Belgium (ImageL Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP/PA).

WORLD

#BELGIUM: At least ten people are dead after a plane carrying parachutists crashed in Belgium.

#ITALY: Italians took to the streets of Rome today to protest the country’s harsh austerity measures. [euronews]

#GREECE: The family of a boy who went missing in Greece in 1991 have been given new hope after a little blonde girl was discovered in a Roma camp.

#BERLUSCONI: Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been banned from politics for two years. [AFP]

INNOVATION

• At least ten million innocent files were killed when Megaupload was taken down two years ago. [Gizmodo]
• This is less gross than it sounds. IBM has unveiled a new computer, powered by what it calles ‘electronic blood’. [BBC]

PARTING SHOT

Lewis Duckett and Billy Jones kept their relationship a secret for years, writing coded letters to each other while Jones was in Vietnam. Now they are married, have a daughter and are grandparents. This is their touching story.  [The New York Times]

Here’s What Happened Yesterday>