EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie bring you five stories you really should check out by 5pm.
1. #MARKETS: It’s been a day of mixed messages from the world’s financial markets, as investors respond to the US debt downgrade in an unusual way… by increasing their demand for US bonds. The costs of borrowing for governments around the world – including Spain, Italy and Ireland – have fallen, but it’s been yet another miserable day on stock markets.
2. #WATERFORD Sergeant Martha McEnery has been found guilty of assault as the trial of four Waterford-based gardaí draws to a close. On Friday two gardaí were found guilty on charges relating to the same incident, while one garda was found not guilty.
3. #AIR TRAFFIC: There could be more air travel chaos on the cards. German air traffic controllers, who were due to go on strike last week until a court issued an injunction stopping them, will down tools for six hours at 5am Irish time. Flights to and from Germany will be affected, as will any flight that would ordinarily fly through German airspace.
4. #SCRUPLES: 32 TDs have returned over €120,000 in expenses they were given in 2010, but which they never actually incurred. The TDs had been given the expenses in advance because they opted not to ‘vouch’ for their claims – but, having not spent the cash given to them, have refunded it to the taxpayer. Education minister Ruairí Quinn is top of the returns list, giving back almost €15,000.
5. #BISCUITS: The company which manufactures some of Ireland’s favourite biscuits has been sold, in a move which brings many of Ireland’s best-known food brands under one roof. Jacob Fruitfield, which makes cream crackers, Mikado, Kimberley and Coconut Creams, is to be bought by Valeo Foods which already runs Odlums, Roma, Erin and Bachelors Beans.
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