A glance at the week that was
Boso barbecues bears
Protests take many forms. Erminio Boso, a member of Italy’s Northern League and a key ally of Silvio Berlusconi, did not like proposals to continue reintroducing the brown bear into the Trentino Alpine region. He figured it would put off visitors. A decade ago, 10 bears were reintroduced to the area, and there are now 35. They sometimes prey on livestock, and there have been complaints from locals.
If you can't beat them, eat them, appears to have been Boso's philosophy. He imported about 50 kilos of brown bear meat from Slovenia, and planned to serve it up as bear burgers and kebabsat a barbecue in Imer, near Trento.
Bear hunting is illegal in Italy, but recipes containing bear meat have been handed down through the generations. The advertised barbecue drew protests from animal-rights organisations, and the health ministry arrived to raid the fridges ahead of the barbecue. Deer pasta was served instead.
The end of the World
Front pages of yesterday's London newspapers reporting on the closing of the national tabloid newspaper News of The Worldfollowing serious allegations that phone hacking was widespread during the editorships of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. The newspaper will close tomorrow. Photograph: Stewart Stanley/Getty Images
Most read this week on irishtimes.com
1 Treasure worth billions found in India
2 Can’t sell, can’t rent: holiday homeowners in a fix
3 Mass property auction held
4 Boy killed in freak escalator incident
5 Kings and queens of kink: inside Dublin’s fetish scene
6 Priest takes action against RTÉ
7 Fox News hack declares “Obama dead”
8 Brunker bullish before Oxegen blowout
9 House prices continue decline
10 Warning over Irish credit rating
We now know
That the newest feature on Facebook– now with 750 million accounts – is video chat powered by Skype, which launched this week.
According to a survey carried out by Oxfam, the author whose books are the most donated to charity shops is Dan Brown. However, the author who customers buy the most is Stieg Larsson.
Property in Irelandis back to 2001 prices.
"I am going to make history here as the first president to live tweet." President Barack Obama's first tweet during his hour-long "town hall" type meeting via Twitter.
The numbers
107
The number of medals won by the Irish team at the Special Olympicsin Greece
€20bn
The estimated – and rising – value of a hidden troveof gold, diamonds and precious stones, discovered in the vaults of a temple in Kerala, India.
800
The number of trolleys stolen from one Asdasupermarket in Basildon, Essex, in less than two weeks
€11m
The amount offered to Maria Shriver, the soon-to-be ex-wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, for her memoirs