SEVEN DAYS:A glance at the week that was
The Alps must be one of the few places in the world that has a stereotyped sound, with yodelling and cowbells assumed to be part of the daily soundtrack. A court in Austria has challenged the audioscape by ordering a farmer to remove the bells from his cattle after complaints from neighbours.
The residents of Stallhofen, a town of 3,000 people in the southeastern foothills of the Alps, complained that the cowbells were keeping them awake, and the judge, Erich Kundegraber, agreed, finding that “the animals cause a loud noise at night through the clanging of bells that disturbs the nocturnal peace of neighbours”. Antisocial yodellers had better take note.
The numbers
$7.25bnSize of the settlement agreed by MasterCard, Visa and some of the largest banks in the US in a lawsuit brought by retailers over card fees. It is the largest antitrust settlement in US history.
1%Projected drop in Irish incomes in 2013, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.
36Number of Chinese fishermen detained for poaching in Russian waters, straining relations between the countries.
150,000Number of free condoms provided to athletes in the Olympic Village.
48Tonnes of silver bullion recovered from the wreck of a British cargo ship torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1941, 480km off the west coast.
53.2%Proportion of the Irish adult population who don't get enough physical activity, according to research published in the Lancet.
We now know
The world's highest-energy laser shotwas achieved by scientists in California. At 500 trillion watts, it consumed 1,000 times the energy used in the US at any given moment.
An iceberg twice the size of Manhattanhas broken off from Petermann Glacier, in northern Greenland.
One of the "most wanted" Nazisalive, 97-year-old Laszlo Csizsik-Csatary, has been located in Budapest.
Most read on irishtimes.com
1 'The first thing I saw was a guy punch a girl in the face'
2 Unnoticed infection turns unstoppable
3 Return of anti-Irish prejudice in Britain?
4 Venter says 'synthetic life coming'
5 Developers dream home for €3.75m
6 Tourism Ireland video goes viral
7 The Boss stays switched on and tuned in
8 Publication of McAreavey crime photos condemned
9 Return of anti-Irish racism in Britain
10 Couples united in their passion for success
Rankings for July 13th-20th
