Italy goalkeeper Stefano Tempesti attempts a save during a training session at the Water Polo Arena at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 28, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

THINGS WE LEARNED:

#EUROZONE: Germany’s finance minister has rejected talk of a possible application from Spain for the eurozone’s bailout fund to buy the struggling country’s bonds. Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as telling the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Spain’s short-term financing needs are “not so big” and that talk of the country making an application the European Financial Stability Facility to buy bonds was “speculation”.

#CYSTIC FIBROSIS: A new drug that can help people with a certain form of cystic fibrosis has been approved by the European Medicines Agency: Kalydeco, manufactured by Vertex, treats people with cystic fibrosis aged six and over who have at least one copy of the G551d mutation. Regulators in Ireland must now approve the drug ahead of any negotiations between Vertex and the HSE corporate pharmaceutical unit regarding pricing.

#PSNI: Two PSNI officers have been arrested in connection with an investigation into alleged corruption in Co Tyrone. The two have been released on bail and are suspended from duty,although no details about their alleged misconduct have been released. Five others from the same team in Cookstown have also been repositioned.

#CIVIL SERVICE: The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said that civil servants will have to perform to a higher standard to ensure they receive pay rises. Announcing changes to the Performance Management and Development System (PMDS), Howlin revealed that staff will now have to score at least three (out of five) in their reviews in order to qualify for a salary increment.

#GAS HIKE: Staying warm this winter may be more expensive than hoped if an application by Bord Gáis to increase gas residential gas tariffs by 7.54 per cent is approved by the Commission for Energy Regulation. The CER, which will announce its decision in August, said it will only allow the agency to pass on costs to customers if they are “efficiently-incurred”.

THINGS WE LOVED:

• Australia has been beckoning to many Irish people in recent years – and Molly Malone appears to be no exception. Well… her statue, at least. Talks are reportedly underway about a possible temporary move for Molly Down Under while works on a new Luas interconnector are carried out.
• Coming from a family with a long history of involvement in Ireland’s construction industry, photographer Stephen Doyle set out to document its changing nature in the wake of the Celtic Tiger. His stunning photographs capture the young men who worked so hard during the boom and are now struggling in its aftermath.
• The joy, pain, relief, election and heartbreak: the tumultuous first day of the Olympics captured in photos by TheScore.ie.
• This guy didn’t make it to the Olympics – but we think you’ll be hard pushed to find anyone there with quite as much skill in stacking chairs and wine bottles…

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THINGS WE SHARED:

• Queen Elizabeth was officially digging the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics – and, to prove it, Buzzfeed has collected her 16 most excited expressions.
• It has been suggested that the body of a  ’monster’ discovered under New York’s Brooklyn Bridge earlier this week is a distant relative of the legendary Montauk Monster of Long Island. The unusual-looking creature that washed up in Mountaug in 2008 had a hairless, dog-like body but also display beaks and claws – and the type of animal it was has never been identified. Are they related?

Published by StephenHannardADGUK