SHORTLY after signing on as chief operating officer at Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg was looking to connect with people in a similar role — No 2 to a brilliant and passionate young founder. She called Tim Cook.

THANK you Prime Time, for a powerful and brilliant piece of public service broadcasting.

Not surprisingly, the Croke Park II deal has been firmly rejected by public sector unions and, in theory at least, the Government now finds itself in a bit of a bind in relation to how it is going to come up with a further €1bn in savings on the public sector pay bill over the next three years.

Mislabelling meat products as beef when they contain horsemeat is rightly deplored, but this could have welcome consequences in making people more conscious of the need to be aware of the contents of packaged foods.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney will brief a parliamentary committee on the horse meat controversy today after a second processing plant tested positive for equine DNA.

Students left penniless by the college grants fiasco are turning up hungry at St Vincent de Paul and welfare offices for food parcels.

The Irish Aviation Authority was warned as recently as last September that the €85,000 fees paid by cadets training with Pilot Training College Waterford were at risk as the company could be in financial difficulty.

The selection of six wines I have for you from O’Brien’s has turned out by accident to be quite symmetrical: four new world whites — two chardonnays, two sauvignon blancs — and two powerful, fragrant reds from Europe.

The Government tonight comfortably won a Dáil vote to take scandal-hit Anglo Irish Bank under state control.

THE Government says it can’t afford to provide cervical cancer vaccines to 12-year-old girls.

The fiasco over delayed completion of the new £757m (€1bn) Wembley Stadium moves to the British High Court today.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney has reiterated that the PDs could enter government with Fine Gael after the next election.

LABOUR leader Pat Rabbitte has ruled out going into government with the PDs after the next election, saying Mary Harney’s party was “up to their eyes in the same waste and broken promises as Fianna Fáil.”

America’s top news networks are determined to prevent a repeat of their 2000 presidential election embarrassment, which saw them declare the wrong winner.

HOMES built for people with special needs have to be redesigned at a cost of up to €100,000 because the doors on some are too narrow to allow wheelchair access.

The Labour Party has published a new bill calling for the establishment of an independent ombudsman to oversee complaints against the Gardai.