MORNING BULLETIN: Tens of millions owed by HSE to patients

Here's your morning bulletin.

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IRELAND: The HSE owes thousands of hospital patients and nursing home residents, who were wrongly charged a combined €450m for free public services, tens of millions of euro, officials have admitted.

IRELAND: Finance Minister Michael Noonan has branded suggestions he should resign due to his role in the Grace foster abuse case as “ridiculous”, insisting he has “nothing to do” with the scandal.

IRELAND: A man in his 20s has died after a hit and run in Dublin on Wednesday night.

WORLD: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will publish more confidential documents on the US Central Intelligence Agency once a "key attack code" has been disarmed, he has revealed.

WORLD: China has strongly criticised what it called America's "terrible human rights problems" in its annual report on rights abuses in the United States, citing police brutality, high levels of incarceration, racial prejudice and money politics.

BUSINESS: Boosted by domestic spending, the economy is continuing to grow strongly, CSO figures published yesterday suggest, despite the accounting procedures by multinationals distorting an in-depth understanding of what is really going in the Irish economy.

SPORT: Cork manager Kieran Kingston has urged his players to eradicate costly lapses in concentration at key moments in big games — and he’s demanding a full 70- minute performance against Waterford at Walsh Park.

... SOME DISTRACTION

FEATURES: The ‘you can do anything you want’ message is not hitting home as research shows girls still believe boys are more intelligent than them in STEM subjects, says Andrea Mara.

VIRAL: The San Francisco Monastery in Cochabamba, Bolivia, has welcomed its newest monk – an adorable pup called Carmelo.

SHOWBIZ: Actress Brie Larson has said her refusal to applaud Casey Affleck after he won an Oscar “spoke for itself”.