Seven days

A glance at the week that was

The numbers

20 millionThe number of ticket applications so far for the London 2012 Olympics.

7,000The number of jobs being cut by Nokia around the world.

5The number of Real Madrid players the Barcelona star Lionel Messi beat to score his second goal in the Uefa Champions League semi-final first leg in Madrid.

7 per cent

The drop in Irish retail sales compared to March last year.

1.34 billionThe population of China, according to 2010 census figures.

Ma'am a Westlife fan?

Once Queen Elizabeth has got over the excitement of her grandson’s wedding to Kate Middleton she’ll be able to concentrate her attention on her visit to Ireland next month – and what a treat she has in store. There will be a concert in the Convention Centre in Dublin that will include a performance by Westlife.

So, after 800 years and all of that, we’ve managed to come up with a particularly terrible punishment for Britain’s head of state.

A boom for the slump

Over 30 per cent more babies were born in Ireland in the third quarter of 2010 as were born during the same period in 2001. That’s 4,500 extra births in all, according to the Central Statistics Office. Co Meath had the highest birth rate in the country and Co Limerick the lowest, while the average age of women giving birth is now 31.4 years. That’s a year older than it was in 2001.

Other interesting stats include the fact that, out of 19,171 births, 6,481 occurred outside marriage.

We now know

What Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate looks like

Doctors are the most trusted profession, according to a new survey. TDs came last and journalists, sadly, didn’t fare too well either.

The uncensored version of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grayhas finally been published. The original 1890 version excised homoerotic references.