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Dublin: 10 °C Sunday 26 May, 2013

The 9 at 9: Monday

In today’s 9 at 9: The latest on Davis Norris’ Áras bid; a debt deal in the US; the Ministers and the bus lanes; and what the recession is doing to our sex lives.

EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things we feel you ought to know with your morning cup of coffee…or tea.

1. #US DEBT With mere hours left to reach an agreement the US president Barack Obama has announced that congressional leaders have reached a deal on avoiding a historic and potentially devastating debt default. But the fine print makes for less than pleasant reading for many on both sides, particularly Democrats.

2. #STABBINGS Two men have died after separate knife attacks in Galway and Dublin last night. A man in his fifties was found in his apartment in Salthill, Galway last night whilst there have been several arrests following a fatal stabbing in Ballyfermot in Dublin.

3. #NORRIS There is little let up in the pressure on presidential hopeful David Norris today as more details and allegations emerge. The Irish Daily Mail today reports Norris was with Ezra Nawi Yizhak four years after Yizhak was convicted of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy. Meanwhile, the blogger who broke the story has been deluged with hate mail according to the Irish Independent.

4. #BUS MINISTERS Cabinet ministers have given themselves permission to drive in bus lanes according to a report in today’s Irish Independent. Fionnan Sheahan writes that the perk for ministers on official business was agreed at the final cabinet meeting before the summer recess last week.

5. #SOCIAL HOUSING Many offers of social housing in this country are refused because of unrealistic expectations, according to new figures seen by the Irish Examiner. Half of all offers were not even acknowledged in one local authority.

6. #SYRIA More than 130 people are feared to have died as Syria’s brutal crackdown on opposition forces continues. President Obama has already condemned the attacks whilst Germany is calling for emergency discussions between members of the UN security council later today in New York, according to BBC News.

7. #NORWAY The man behind the brutal attacks in Norway which killed 77 people has reportedly demanded that he be made head of the country’s armed forces. The Times (subscription required) reports that in the latest round of interrogations Anders Behring Breivik demanded the post in return for information about other right-wing cells he claims are preparing attacks.

8. #RECESSION SEX The recession is killing Irish couples’ sex lives according to a new survey by Relationships Ireland. An increasing number of men are struggling with their libido according to the survey carried in today’s Irish Daily Star.

9. #FACEBOOK FUGITIVE Finally, a man on the run from police in the US used his Facebook to taunt New York’s finest, writing “catch me if you can. I’m in Brooklyn” on his Facebook page. Victor Burgos was arrested shortly after the status update. Police found him at his apartment, at his computer and updating his Facebook, the New York Daily News reports.

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Comments (27 Comments)

  • I liked number 9… What a gombeen :-)

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  • I’m a little confused about the fact that the Norris Letter writing is being reported as new allegations. I’m 99%sure that this was reported at the time with the Herald even printing a copy of the letter on it’s front page.
    Can you good people at the Journal use your investigative powers to confirm??

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  • Re The Irish Mail throwing petrol on the Norris story…The Irish Mail would. Slightly to the right of Ghengis Khan. This from a publication that in the days after the tragic death of Stephen Gately, not implied, but right out said he deserved it due to his sleazy homosexual hedonistic lifestyle (Jan Moir). The Mail has about as much credibility in matters like this as does the old testament book of Leviticus.

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    • So basically the newspapers are at fault for revealing the truth about Norris, maybe there should be an inquiry ?

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    • That’s not what I said. My comment was expressly about The Irish Mail, who has a reputation for selectively sensationalising stories as it suits their conservative agenda. I think Norris was wrong for his letter, but it was 20 years ago, and he’s done amazing positive constructive work since. Move bleedin on…

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  • If the Gardai do their job well, it will be a slower journey in a bus lane for a minister because he will be stopped at every junction to explain why he is in the lane.

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  • It’s ironic how the self appointed global keepers of the peace can’t agree a solution amongst themselves on a debt default avoidance solution.

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  • Driving in bus lanes? WTF??? Shouldn’t they be concerned with other things, like ummm… Mass unemployment, economic ruin, a generation destroyed by negative equity? Another case of politicians looking after themselves first

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  • chrissy 01/08/11 #

    Shouldn’t that headline read: Cabinet approves ABUSE of bus lanes for ‘ official business ‘

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  • How can people refuse social housing??? Recently it was announced Cluid (I think that is how it is spelt) purchased appartments in the Beacon Court development which will include rental to tennants and social housing.It has a concierge service, so maybe if I default I will get a house for nothing! What about people who purchased at a high price for their appartment only to look accross the courtyard at a family who have received a house for nothing? Dont get me wrong I’m not discriminating but fair is fair. I’m struggling like many thousands to pay my mortgage but there are people in my area with houses larger than mine and with huge gardens all being payed for by the tax payer! It’s not very encouraging for future generations

    .”Here son work hard and live in a dog box or feck it all and put your name on the housing list and you could have this spacious 4 bed semi-detached for free, thats right free and don’t worry because the couple accross the road up at 7a.m. to go to work will pay for it!”

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  • More sensationalised reporting from that rag (mail) hence the reason I am a journal fan… Good reporting and honest assessments…..

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  • It’s quite sad that the Norris campaign has hit this juncture, however asking for leniency for a statutory rapist, from a foreign Gov’t on parliamentary paper is shocking in the extreme… That blogger should not be shot down for bringing this up!

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  • #9 really cheered me up … Am I firssssst?

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  • Who ever has deluged the blogger who broke the story about senator Norris’s for partner up on rape charges should cop on. Who in their right mind would support anyone for that matter who would send a letter to ask for leniency from a government on headed paper is beyond me. This is life , the past will catch up on dirty politician who does anything wrong…. So those people who dat , think before you speak. If it turned out to be a smear campaign fair enough, but it isn’t !!!

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  • Shameful that the blogger who brought the truth about Norris into the public domain is being treated like this. He should be considered as a hero as he has done us all some service in revealing what Norris got up to. Can kind of fascists were supporting Norris?

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  • Social housing I’m not surprised people are refusing them, in Carlow it’s a well know fact the social houses are in an awful state and the council had no funds for repairs or updates loads of them had frozen pipes which burst over the winter then a lot of them are in bad areas were crime and drugs are rampant when you have small children you don’t want to live in an area like that I know I wouldn’t for a lot of people now it will be renting or SH most won’t ever be able to afford to buy their own homes ever because of the recession

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  • They don’t call themselves fascists, they call themselves enlightened freethinking liberals! Semantics?

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  • It was not a dig at the reporter , the stories are boring in my view….. Nothing more , nothing less

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  • Interesting how the Norris story is gaining so much ground – while I do find it bad, was this not all reported way back at the time? I’m pretty sure that the case received attention both in Israel and here… so there’s nothing really that’s new… Personally i think that while it’s disgraceful that he wrote the letter on Seanad paper, little else about the story really affects his standing in my mind. If you were dating someone for almost 20 years, wouldn’t you do what you could to help them?

    Also, what is surely WORSE than Norris writing for leniancy for his partner who had sex with a minor (I’ve heard some reports that he wasn’t 15, but 17 and 6 months, just 6 months under the legal age in Israel!) is a then foreign affairs minister, writing on OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT PAPER, a plea to excuse a man from execution who murdered two people (doctors I think) outside of an abortion clinic in Florida. No matter what your view of the death penalty, to write on official paper to excuse a murderer is surely worse… and it’s more recent, story is here;

    http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0903/deathrow.html?view=print%3Fview%3Dprint

    Funny how there’s not even a mention of this!

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  • 9 at 9 …….. Boring this morning

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