LUNCHTIME BULLETIN: Social services card 'not compulsory' insists Minister, Monkey escapes from Fota Wildlife Park

Here's your lunchtime news bulletin.

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IRELAND: The Social Protection Minister has said the new public services card is not compulsory. but it is mandatory if you want to claim money from the government.

IRELAND: A colobus monkey is on the loose after escaping from Fota Wildlife Park in Cork.

WORLD: A bus carrying construction workers has driven off a pier in southern Russia, killing at least 17 people, officials said.

WORLD: Five people are dead and scores injured after violence erupted across northern India's Haryana state when a court convicted the flamboyant leader of a quasi-religious sect of raping two of his followers.

ANALYSIS: The Fine Gael-led Government has been handed a burning political hot potato as the summer draws to a close and schools due to reopen, writes Juno McEnroe.

BUSINESS: The billionaire chief of Samsung has been sentenced to five years in prison for bribery and other crimes in a stunning downfall for the heir to South Korea's biggest family fortune and a global consumer electronics empire.

SPORT: Captain Manuel Neuer has been left out of the Germany squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Czech Republic and Norway.

SPORT: Ronan McCarthy has been appointed as the new Cork football manager for a three-year term.

... SOME DISTRACTION

SHOWBIZ: Taylor Swift has unveiled her fiery new single Look What You Made Me Do, in which she declares the “old Taylor is dead” while seemingly taking aim at the likes of Kanye West and Katy Perry.

FEATURES: Environmental factors such as airborne pollutants and pesticides in our foods are leading to a decline in the quality and quantity of male sperm, says Lorraine Courtney.

VIRAL: Police in South Australia have charged a man with unlawful possession after a number of weird items were found at his home, including hundreds of avocados.