MORNING BULLETIN: Government to launch €3bn AIB shares sale

Here's your morning bulletin.

GET INFORMED ...

IRELAND: The Government is on course to launch a €3bn sale of shares in AIB, marking the start of a reprivatisation process that will still likely take years before taxpayers recover all of the €21bn they injected into the bank during the financial crisis.

IRELAND: Fine Gael members have been warned that Ireland would be hit with a daily €20,000 fine, backdated to 2009, if water charges are scrapped.

IRELAND: Nurses have agreed to attend talks at the Workplace Relations Commission in their long-running row with the HSE.

ANALYSIS: Last week, as it was reported the Policing Authority is to fill its first senior position since it was handed that power, the Garda Review warned in an editorial that ‘nepotism and pull are alive and well’ in the selection process. Today ex-garda Patrick Horan, now a lawyer, argues that methods of promotion have sullied the honour of the force.

WORLD: North Korea has condemned the start of US-South Korean military drills with fiery rhetoric which was given added weight by recent missile and nuclear tests by Pyongyang.

BUSINESS: Shopping online on Amazon.com is “a real threat” to Irish stores because it attracts a lot of business, a survey of Irish retailers by PwC has found.

SPORT: Billy Holland admits Munster “fell asleep at wheel” in their loss against Scarlets last weekend.

... SOME DISTRACTION

FEATURES: A stroll through the two social media platforms has me convinced that the millennials do deserve some of the stick they get after all, writes Paula Burns.

VIRAL: Clothing retailer Zara have found themselves under fire after they used a picture of slim models to promote its ‘love your curve’ campaign.

SHOWBIZ: Shirley MacLaine says she is “processing the horror” of the Oscar best picture gaffe involving her younger brother Warren Beatty.