IT IS curiously appropriate that today is February 29, a Leap Day, given the shock delivered to our political system over the weekend.

The biggest banks in Denmark’s €402bn mortgage market say hedge funds looking for ways to bet against the industry are setting themselves up for losses.

CRITICISM OVER BEER TAX CUTS IN DENMARK

The Danish government says it will abolish the country’s fat tax in January.

The Food and Drink sector has warned that measures in the Budget that increase grocery prices will damage prospects for recovery in the domestic economy and put jobs at risk.

It’s over a fortnight now since actor Gabriel Byrne denounced The Gathering as a ‘scam’ on national radio.

THE first move for dairy farmers before expanding is to become as efficient as possible with their present dairy enterprise.

“WE must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately,” Polish finance minister Jacek Rostowski warned over the weekend, quoting the phrase attributed to Benjamin Franklin as he signed the US declaration of independence.

Marmite’s makers have been urged to apply for a licence to sell the product in Denmark and end a temporary ban on the spread which has upset its fans living in the country.

IS NAZISM making a comeback? You might think so reading some of the headlines this week. “Behind the migrant row, Europe keeps shifting to the far-right,” warns Time magazine. “Finland leads rise of the far-right in Europe,” according to The Daily Telegraph.

THE response from Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar and Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan to the suggestion that another €15 billion might be needed to recapitalise Ireland’s rotten banks should be welcomed by every one of us.

IRELAND will be allowed to retain its 12.5% corporation tax rate, but is under pressure in bailout talks to give fewer tax breaks to foreign multinationals, say EU sources.

NATIONAL Irish Bank (NIB) will close almost half of its branches and cut 150 jobs as part of a major restructuring programme.

FOREIGN Minister Micheál Martin reiterates the claim that what we are voting on in Lisbon II has changed (Irish Examiner, July 15).

FOREIGN banks operating in Ireland scrambled for inclusion in the Government’s guarantee scheme yesterday.

Danske Bank Group, the parent company of National Irish Bank (NIB), has announced its participation in a state guarantee provided by the Danish Government.

The ongoing banking crisis in the developed world is set to top the agenda at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels today.

The men arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings were two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin, Danish police have revealed.

The Danish government today expressed its regret over the Viking invasion of Ireland more than 1,000 years ago.

Shares in Foster’s brewer Scottish & Newcastle soared today amid market speculation over bid interest from Danish rival Carlsberg.

THE Government is snatching over €36 million a year in VAT from Irish charities.

The Danish government has received a formal request from the United Nations to imprison Liberian President Charles Taylor if he is convicted by a UN-backed war crimes court, government sources said Tuesday.

DANISH Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller yesterday received a petition with 60,000 signatures calling for reconciliation between Denmark and the Muslim world following the crisis over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons.

Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller today received a petition with 60,000 signatures calling for reconciliation between Denmark and the Muslim world following the crisis over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons.

Muslim and Christian scholars and clerics agreed at a conference today that the West and Islam must use dialogue to repair ties frayed by the crisis over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons.

Consumer boycotts of Danish goods in Muslim countries in protest of the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed are costing Denmark’s companies millions, and have raised fears of irreparable damage to trade ties.

Denmark’s main opposition party and a government ally today called for an investigation of a national Muslim group’s Middle East trip, which has been blamed for fanning the furore over a newspaper’s publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

More than 1,000 protesters burned a British flag and the regional administration in Iraq’s main southern province severed all ties with British authorities over video footage showing British soldiers allegedly beating and kicking Iraqi youths.

The uproar over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons was Denmark’s biggest foreign policy challenge since the Second World War, the prime minister said today.

Anger over the alleged abuse of Iraqis by British forces prompted Basra Provincial Council to sever relations with the British on Tuesday, while two purported victims demanded compensation from London.

Basra’s provincial council today demanded the withdrawal of Denmark’s 530-member military contingent from southern Iraq unless the Danish government apologises for the publication of the contentious Prophet Mohammed caricatures.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that violent protests in the Muslim world over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed could “spin out of control” if governments refuse to act responsibly.

TENS of thousands of Muslims around the world demonstrated against the drawings of the Prophet Mohammed after Friday prayers, some shouting anti-American slogans and burning Danish flags.

IT is surprising to find Denmark at the centre of the international furore over the cartoons that have inflamed Muslim opinion because it has traditionally been one of those countries least associated with religious intolerance.

DENMARK’S Prime Minister yesterday appealed for calm amid what he called a “growing global crisis” over drawings of the prophet Mohammed.

The Danish government was to brief parliament today on the attacks on Danish diplomatic missions during protests over a newspaper’s cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

About 400 Muslims stamped on Denmark’s flag outside Thailand’s embassy in Bangkok today.

Thousands of Syrians enraged by caricatures of Islam’s revered prophet torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies yesterday – the most violent in days of furious protests by Muslims in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.