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EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know as you start your day.
1. #ULSTER BANK: RBS, the parent company of Ulster Bank, has denied that Ulster Bank customers are low priority and says that ongoing problems at the Irish bank are not a reflection of its priorities concerning the UK banks in its group. Ulster Bank executives will face questioning from TDs and Senators later this week about ongoing problems at the bank.
2. #CRIME: Minister Richard Bruton is enacting legislation today which will double the maximum prison sentences for some white collar crimes to ten years.
3. #ORANGE ORDER: The Grand Secretary of the Grand Orange Lodge will address the Seanad today for the first time. Drew Nelson told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today that he hopes today’s address will be the “start of an increased normalisation of relationships between the two communities”.
4. #BARCLAYS: The chief executive of Barclays Bob Diamond has resigned with immediate effect in the wake of a rate-fixing controversy for which the bank was fined a record £290 million last week. David Cameron has announced a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.
5. #SYRIA: Human Rights Watch has issued a new report saying that former Syrian detainees have identified 27 detention facilities where torture methods were used. The systematic pattern of torture and abuse clearly show a police of ill-treatment and torture constituting crimes against humanity, the organisation says.
6. #TURKEY: Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad has said in an interview with a Turkish newspaper that he fully regrets that a Turkish military plane was shot down, the BBC reports. The incident seriously soured already-dampened relations between the neighbouring states.
7. #MICROSOFT: Tech firm Microsoft has announced it will absorb a $6.2 billion charge following the disastrous outcome of one of the biggest deals made in the company’s history. Microsoft bought online advertising company aQuantive in 2007 as part of a bid to challenge Google’s advertising revenue, but the company didn’t pull in as much revenue as had been expected. The write-down could impact on Microsoft’s latest quarterly results.
8. #LIBYA: Libyan authorities have released an international criminal court legal team it had accused of smuggling documents to Gaddafi’s son. The four staff members were “treated well during their detention”, according to ICC President Judge Sang-Hyun Song. However, all four have been summoned to appear before a Libyan court later this month as part of the state prosecutor’s investigation against them.
9. #WELCOME BACK: Around 20,000 people turned out early this morning to welcome the Volvo Ocean Race as the teams reached the Irish coast at the end of the nine-month-long competition. Here’s a taste of the welcome the sailors received:
(Image: Volvo Ocean Race @volvooceanrace)
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Sure nobody is to be going outside so it’s fine.
Stay in, watch some tv, read a book, stay warm.
The English is ur opening paragraph is really poor.
@Gina Carroll: People in glasshouses……
@Gina Carroll: I can’t see anything wrong with the English in the opening paragraph.
And by the way, you should really spell check your comments before you send them. Especially when criticising other people.
You have a great day now.
@Karl Lyons: In the heading there is no full stop after days.
In the first paragraph the first 3 words are all capitalised.
@Gina Carroll: It’s in English! Maybe you meant to say the grammar? Oh and it’s your not “UR” text talk makes me batty, the phones have predictive text, it couldn’t be simpler
@Melina Roberts: people are so picky on here!
@Melina Roberts: people are so picky on here!
@Gina Carroll: I tink its all spelt just fine
@Karl Lyons: I would have grave concerns over the use of the word “Especially” at the beginning of a sentence. It is certainly not acceptable in formal or academic writing. There should also be no space before a comma. The only ending punctuation mark that sometimes needs to be preceded by a space is a dash.
@David Connell: A heading doesn’t need a full stop as it’s a heading.
And the capitalisation at the start of a paragraph is to emphasise or signal the beginning of an article for the reader.
@Gina Carroll: lol! The irony.
@Kevin Arnold: You should look bit closer and you’ll see that there is no space before the comma. It just seems that way because of the letter y.
Hands up to my grammatical error with the word especially.
@David Connell: It’s a heading and fullstops don’t tend to be used in headings. The capitalization of the first 3 words tends to be a standard in many newspaper articles and book chapters if you ever pick them up.
@Gina Carroll: ur englush noot grate eithur.
@Melina Roberts: F All else to do !
@Gina Carroll: I agwee
Any chance the weathermen could give us some sun? What did we do to them?
I saw a UFO for 10 seconds this morning somebody said it was the Sun
Dublin got its fair share of rain this morning all the same.
have your say