Michael D Higgins rushed from official residence in dead of night after bomb threat
IRISH PRESIDENT MICHAEL D. HIGGINS.
Ireland’s President Michael D Higgins had to be evacuated from his official residence in his pajamas after an alleged IRA bomb threat made in a phone call to the Samaritans.
Police rushed the President and his wife Sabina from Aras an Uachtarain, their Phoenix Park home, in the middle of Tuesday night.
A report in the Irish Independent says President Higgins was moved to a safe area of the estate while officers dealt with the threat.
The full-scale emergency evacuation plan was activated following a phone threat late on Tuesday night.
The alarm was raised following a call to the Samaritans helpline at around 10pm.
The speaker, now believed to be a teenage prankster, reportedly warned; “There is a bomb set to go off in Aras an Uachtarain to kill the President.
“IT’S SET FOR 12.32AM. IRA, IRA.”
The report says senior police officers took the decision to wake President Higgins (72) up, as armed detectives were sent from local stations to Phoenix Park.
An armed guard protected the president and his wife as they waited until their security personnel received the all-clear.
The report adds that the President was said to be ‘gracious’ for his security’s quick decision.
Police investigating the threat believe it could have been a hoax by a young teenager.
PTSB stress test shortfall to be between €800m and €1bn
THE PERM TSB BANK WILL HAVE TWO WEEKS TO SUBMIT ACTION PLAN TO SINGLE SUPERVISORY MECHANISM
PTSB will not have to raise the full amount identified by the ECB on Sunday.
Permanent TSB’s capital shortfall arising from European Central Bank stress tests will be between €800 million and €1 billion, The Irish Times has learned.
PTSB, which is 99.2 per cent owned by the State, will fail the adverse scenario case of the stress test when the results are published on Sunday.
PTSB will have two weeks to submit a plan to the new Single Supervisory Mechanism, which assumes regulatory oversight for the euro zone on November 4th, outlining how it intends to plug the hole in its capital buffer. It will have until the end of July next year to put the funding in place.
PTSB will not have to raise the full amount identified by the ECB on Sunday. The figure announced by the ECB will be a gross number. PTSB will then be able to net off up to €400 million worth of contingent capital notes, or CoCos as they are better known, held by the State as part of the bank’s €2.7 billion bailout.
PROPERTY MARKET
In addition, it will likely be allowed to factor into its plan actions that it has taken this year, such as the sale of its Springboard sub-prime mortgage book, along with provision writebacks that reflect the upturn in the Irish economy and property market.
PTSB will seek to raise whatever capital it needs from the markets, with Deutsche Bank engaged to seek out potential investors. The State is another possible source of funding but Minister for FinanceMichael Noonan last week said he expected PTSB to raise whatever funding it needs from private sources.
As part of the asset quality review undertaken for the comprehensive assessment exercise by the ECB and theEuropean Banking Authority, some 1,100 PTSB debtor files were assessed, along with 4,400 collateral items.
As PTSB has not yet received approval for its restructuring plan its stress test was done on the basis of a static balance sheet based on year-end 2013.
This meant that in applying the stress scenarios into the future the bank was required to maintain the same business mix and asset and liability profile in terms of quality and maturity that it had at the end of last year.
By comparison, the dynamic balance sheet calculations allowed certain exemptions from the static rules to reflect the terms of the restructuring plans agreed with the commission. This applies to varying degrees to Bank of Ireland and AIB.
Positive Action group paid €13,000 for weekend of Hotel pampering
POSITIVE ACTION RACKED UP A WEEKEND BILL OF €13,000 ON PAMPERING.
POSITIVE Action – the support group for women infected with Hepatitis C – racked up a bill of nearly €13,000 over one weekend hotel break, documents show.
The support group, which was criticised in a HSE audit for its extravagant use of public funding, was set up in 1994 to help 1,000 women infected with the potentially fatal virus after receiving batches of the contaminated Anti-D blood product.
Financial details supplied to the HSE as part of the audit reveal an outlay of €12,847 in February 2012 for a pampering and relaxation weekend at the Athlone Springs Hotel – in spite of an instruction from the HSE that it should halt this kind of discretionary spending. The organisation argued the funding came from its 2011 allocation.
The group, which was wound-up in May, sought €123,920 in 2014 funding for members’ weekends, workshops and meetings. It told the HSE that regional meetings were a critical and central support service for ageing women in bad health.
“We cannot emphasise to you enough the reassurance our members get when they are able to talk and their feelings of isolation dissipate following contact with other members in similar situations.”
It said that giving therapies to women at weekend conferences took away the stigma of having to fill out forms divulging they had hepatitis C in other venues. The letter said that “even in Dublin, some members have issues accessing a qualified nurse therapist in their local area. This is more difficult in rural areas”.
In other instances it was necessary to hold meetings with partners and families of women who died from the virus and who were now left adrift, alone and isolated.
Meanwhile, it is understood a complaint of alleged fraud involving around €150,000 was made by Positive Action to the Gardai. An investigation began late last year and a woman has been interviewed. The alleged irregularities came to light last September, when the directors of Positive Action were compiling documentation for the HSE which was collecting information as part of its audit.
Efforts are also under way to set up a new organisation to support women. A number of former directors are operating from their homes to maintain communications with women who relied on Positive Action for support. They hope a new support group can be established.
Four Irish hotels named among Europe’s Top 10 resorts
Condé Nast nods for Sheen Falls, Ashford Castle, K Club and Adare Manor cap an extraordinary week for Irish tourism.
Another day; another travel bible showering praise on Ireland.
Yesterday, the country featured on Lonely Planet’s Top 10 to visit in 2015.
Now comes the news that readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine have named four Irish hotels among their Top 10 European Resorts.
Sheen Falls Lodge tops the list at No.1, with Ashford Castle ranked second, the K Club fourth and Adare Manor rounding off the Irish showing in tenth place.
The Top 10 Resorts in Europe is as follows:
- Sheen Falls Lodge, Co. Kerry
- Ashford Castle, Co. Mayo
- Blue Palace Resort, Crete
- Kildare Hotel at the K Club, Co. Kildare
- The Gleneagles hotel, Scotland
- Badrutt’s Palace, Switzerland
- Grand Hotel Zermatterhof, Switzerland
- Villa d’Este, Lake Como, Italy
- Old Course Hotel, Scotland
- Adare Manor, Co. Limerick
Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards are published annually, and this year featured over one million votes from almost 77,000 readers. Several lists of best cities, islands, hotels, resorts and cruise lines are drawn up from the results.
Sheen Falls Lodge, which overlooks the picturesque Sheen Waterfalls, also ranks 82nd on the global list of Top 100 Hotels & Resorts.
“We are extremely honoured to be named the number one resort in Europe and to be one of four hotels from the UK and Ireland in the Top 100 hotels and resorts in the world,” said Patrick Hanley, General Manager, Sheen Falls Lodge.
“A special thank you must be extended to the team here who dedicate themselves and make an exceptional effort to ensure all guests have a pleasant and memorable stay.”
The Kenmare five-star is commended by readers for its “first-class service” and “very pretty views”, according to the magazine. Its “very high-quality design” also merits a mention.
Ashford Castle, which ranks 97th in the world, is described as “in a class of its own”.
The Cong, Co. Mayo five-star has “beautiful grounds, fantastic recreational activities” and “outstanding service”, according to readers.
Formerly the Guinness family home, the hotel’s guest rooms come with high ceilings and four-poster beds, the magazine points out, “though they can be tired looking.”
The five-star is currently undergoing an extensive refurbishment programme.
Connemara’s Ballynahinch Castle also features, ranking 23rd of 25 Top Hotels in Europe.
“The setting is something out of a fairy-tale book – lush greenery, lake, silence,” readers report. “It’s just gorgeous, like a rich uncle’s country estate.”
The Condé Nast citations cap an extraordinary run of international recognition for Irish destinations and hotels overseas. In addition to Lonely Planet’s Top 10, Enniskillen’s Lough Erne resort recently topped the Huffington Post’s “Best Hotels for Winter 2014/15″ round-up.
Ancient Europeans were lactose intolerant and cheese makers
New research reveals that Europeans actually began drinking milk long before their genes had adapted to making the most of the nutritional value of milk and learned cheese-making.
New research, which evaluated the ancient DNA found in human bones is bringing an interesting new light on the prehistory of Europe.
Some of the interesting notes, range from changes in skin color and when lactose tolerance began. While the research caught many off-guard, because it was not an expected outcome of the research in the first place.
The study involved looking at the DNA which was extracted from 13 individuals. The individuals were unearthed during construction in the Great Hungarian Plain, which is located in Central Europe. This region is known for its impact in shaping European prehistory. The various finds at the site span 5,000 years, and it was found that the best location to pull DNA from the body, was through the petrous bone, in ancient specimens like that.
The study found that the DNA recovered is revealing of the fact that there was a “progression towards lighter skin pigmentation.” The study also revealed that there was a major shift in technology, and an adoption of farming. In fact, the study found that there were significant shifts between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
In fact, the study found that it wasn’t until the Bronze Age that animals began being able to consume milk, and become tolerant of lactose. Lactose is the natural sugar in the milk of mammals. The shift and evolution of the human body was what ultimately led to this, and this study found that the shift happened significantly earlier than first predicted, or assumed.
However, it isn’t ironic that right at this time, was the same time that more modern methods of farming were seen in the communities which consumed lactose. In fact, while most of the world was lactose intolerant, it was found that the development happened and was spurred by long term farming.
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