Your Tuesday morning catch-up

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

TOP STORIES

The controversial closure of 139 rural Garda stations is saving the State just €500,000 a year, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has admitted.

The Government’s plan for capital investment will be announced this afternoon. A new rail link from Dublin city centre to the airport and Swords - most probably a metro service - will be the centrepiece of the announcement.

Cork is expected to get the go-ahead for vital road investment today with the promise of three key infrastructure projects for the second city at a cost of hundreds of millions of euro.

WORLD 

A doctor in the UK has performed the world’s first embryonic stem cell operation aimed at curing blindness in people with an age-related disease.

Struggling for a solution to Syria’s civil war, President Barack Obama said the United States is willing to work with Russia, as well as Iran to achieve a “managed transition” to remove Syrian leader Bashar Assad from power.

An extreme sports star skydiving for the opening ceremony of a golf event in California died when he struck a tree.