Seven days
Kim Jong-un rekindles pop-star romance:Kim Jong-un has only been leader of North Korea for a few months, but he has already attracted the sort of attention that his father and grandfather never did.
It seems that he’s gone and got himself a new paramour, who just happens to be one of North Korea’s most famous pop stars. Hyon Song-wol, a former member of the jingoistic Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, was photographed with Kim Jong-un at official events last weekend (right), sparking rumours of a romance. Apparently, they dated briefly about a decade ago, before his father, Kim Jong-il, put a stop to it.
The Numbers:
€65bn
Size of the austerity package announced by Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy.
272,000
Number of maternal deaths from childbirth prevented globally each year by the use of contraceptives, according to a report in the Lancet.
46%
Proportion of the population who take regular sporting activity, up more than a third since 2009.
3.3%
Estimated global economic growth this year, according to the Institute of Economic Affairs, which cut its forecast from 3.5 per cent.
$10.1bn
The value of Google’s exports from Ireland – that’s €8.3 billion – which is a yearly increase of 55 per cent.
€1.9m
The unpaid debt that saw Minister for Health James Reilly’s name published in Stubbs Gazette.
1.1%
Contraction in the Irish economy in first three months of this year, although domestic demand grew by 1.5 per cent.
WE NOW KNOW
Jack and Emily were the most common boy’s and girl’s names in Ireland last year.
The Hubble space telescope has discovered a fifth moon orbiting Pluto.
Brian Cowen has gone back to college, enrolling in a six-week executive education course, costing $58,000, at Stanford University, in California.
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9 Second Coming: Stone Roses kick off Phoenix Park series in style
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* Rankings for July 6th-13th
Next week you need to know about . . . 'The Dark Knight Rises'
It has been the summer of the superhero at the cinema, with Spandex and superpowers in plentiful supply thanks to The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man. The battle for comic-book supremacy sees the most eagerly anticipated superhero movie of all enter the ring on Friday, as Batman returns in The Dark Knight Rises.
Hollywood is no stranger to hype machines, but few films have matched the relentless marketing that has been building for the final instalment in the Batman trilogy from the acclaimed English director Christopher Nolan.
Nolan rebooted the franchise in 2005 with Christian Bale playing the lead in Batman Begins, taking the character in a darker, more serious direction than before. Its sequel The Dark Knight was a box-office and cultural phenomenon in 2008.
