The Daily Fix: Monday

EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of the day’s biggest news stories, as well as the bits and pieces you may have missed.

• US president Barack Obama has said that the United States will always be a AAA country no matter what any agencies say. Obama was speaking for the first time since the US’ credit rating was downgraded by Standard and Poor’s. Obama pleaded with lawmakers to take action to create jobs and said that the nations problems are solvable.
• Meanwhile the Dow Jones dropped sharply in the wake of the presidents speech, going down by as much as 500 at one point. European stocks fell to their lowest level since August 2009. This morning European stock markets had stabilised following the ECB’s announcement that it was to buy Spanish and Italian bonds.
• Violence has broken out for a third day in London, as looting and clashes with police spread to Hackney in East London. Sky News reports this evening that sporadic clashes have broken out in several parts of the city, with Lewisham and Peckham joining Hackney on the list of hotspots.
• A jury has found a garda sergeant guilty of assault of the trial of four gardaí in relation to an assault in Waterford city in January 2010 came to a close. Sgt Martha McEnery was found not guilty of the greater offence of assault causing harm. Two other gardaí were also found guilty on charges arising out of the incident.
• There are calls for the way teachers are paid to mark state exams to be changed. The State Exams Commission has revealed that almost €60 million was spent in 2009 and 2010 on marking and supervising exams. There are calls for ‘radical reform’ to the bonus pay given to teachers for the jobs.
• It looks like a planned strike by air traffic controllers in Germany could go ahead tomorrow, unless an eleventh hour court injunction is issued. The controllers are locked in a dispute over pay and conditions.
• The district governor in the area of Norway where a British teenager was killed by a polar bear has issued a photo of the 250 kg animal. Four others were injured in the incident. The bear was shot and killed by members of the group they were travelling with:

Image: District governor of Spitsbergens office/PA Archive/Press Association Images

• Read the intriguing story of the man who has returned to his job in the US state Department of Transportation, after spending none months as… the prime minister of Somalia.
• Historian Colm McCabe’s column featured on TheJournal.ie today says that middle-class people, who were “insufferably smug” during the boom only have themselves to blame for the consequences. He says it’s hard not to indulge in a sense of Schadenfreude when watching Ireland’s middle classes coming to terms with this country post-boom.
• And finally, want to watch two dogs having a heated argurment, with subtitles? Of course you do.