A glance at the week that was
We now know
It’s unlikely there’s intelligent alien life on other planets because if there was it would have visited us by now, according to British scientist and astrobiologist Dr Lewis Dartnell
More than half of Britain’s bankers are expecting their bonus cheques to rocket, in some cases by up to 70 per cent
Living on a flight path could put you at risk of heart attack. Swiss Researchers who studied 4.6 million adults found that dying from a heart attack was more common among people with increased exposure to aircraft noise.
Naked ambition
The British billionaire who dared a man to streak in front of President Obama in Philadelphia says he will not pay out on the $1 million bet. Alki David offered the reward to the first person to successfully expose themselves in front of Obama and post the footage on a website. To get the money the streaker had to be in the eye line and and within earshot of Obama so he could hear them shout out the name of David’s website six times.
Juan Rodriguez, who is unemployed, was bailed out on Monday after being charged with indecent exposure and disorderly conduct. David said without official confirmation from the White House there’s no proof Obama saw the streaker. He said he would give Rodriguez an undisclosed sum in compensation.
Big brother speaks
The eldest playboy son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il has told Japanese TV that he’s against his father’s plan to hand over power to his younger half-brother Kim Jong-un, who has had a meteoric rise from obscurity to senior military and political rank.
Kim Jong-nam, believed to be 39, who is considered the black sheep of the dynasty and who spends much of his time in the Chinese gambling resort of Macao, said, Personally I’m against three generations of hereditary succession.”
"Putting it diplomatically, the first tourists to Ireland were Danes"
President Mary McAleese at a business lunch on the first day of her official visit to Denmark.
The numbers
80The percentage of Irish people who say they've complained, says the National Consumer Agency, the highest since it began tracking consumer behaviour
527:The number of people who took their own lives last year, an increase of 19 per cent on the previous year and directly related to the recession says Dr Conor Farren, a psychiatrist at St Patrick's Hospital in Dublin.
60,000:
the number of Irish households living in persistent fuel poverty
