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A 19 year old American musician, Richard Hinds has been found guilty of the murder of the County Wexford student, Nicola Furlong by a court in Tokyo. Hinds was sentenced to 5 to10 years in prison with labour. The Presiding judge described the crime as "atrocious," and said that the fact that Ms Furlong was "strangled with force for several minutes:" showed "intent"
Joining Pat from Tokyo Paul Murphy of the Irish Independent and Angela Furlong, Nicola’s mother.
Over a million people gathered in the Vatican this morning to witness the inauguration of Pope Francis as leader of the world’s Catholic population.
The ceremonial bestowing of the papal ring and the coat of arms is now complete...and we have heard the first homily of the former Archbishop of Argentina.
Well, Jesuit priest, Fr Kevin O’Higgins and Fr Michael Collins, author of ‘The Vatican – Secrets and Treasures of the Holy City’ have been watching events in Rome for us.
A vote will take place in the Cypriot parliament later today with a government spokesman saying earlier that a deal on the table to save the country’s beleaguered economy is unlikely to be ratified.
It appears the ‘little guy’ may have won out in the plan and those with deposits of 100,000 or less may escape being taxed.
Pat was joined from Nicosia by journalist Maria Kagkelidou,
In reports submitted to Government in recent weeks, including an in inter agency task force report and a report by Mediation Northern Ireland, the town is said to be “dying” and is described as “practically segregated” in relation to the lack of interaction between the settled and Traveller communities. While the town has attracted some negative media focus in recent years, some locals feel this latest report is not a fair representation of what life is like in Rathkeale. In the past week, Brian O’Connell has visited Rathkeale on several occasions to get a sense of whether or not an apartheid type situation exists in the west Limerick town.
John McGolgan is no stranger to stage success. Along with his wife, Moya Doherty, he placed Irish dancing on the world stage with Riverdance and with any luck his next music and dance stage spectacular, Heartbeat of Home, will follow suit. And, if you’re a budding star of the stage, you may be interested to know that they are looking for dancers online – the first theatrical production company to hosting a talent search on the internet.
The St. Patrick’s Day festivities may be winding down on this side of the Atlantic but in keeping with tradition, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore will present President Barack Obama with a bowl of shamrock at the white house later today. Yesterday, Mr. Kenny faced questions on the fallout from the controversy over the once off bank levy in Cyprus with the Taoiseach stressing that Cyprus is a “unique case” and that there is no threat to deposits here in Ireland. It’s reported this morning in the Irish Independent that government officials are playing down the prospect of an announcement today of another visit by Mr. Obama to this country. The political editor of that paper Fionnan Sheahan joined Pat from Washington.
