I never got to meet Yasser Arafat. And I regret that, especially given the way he was treated towards the end of his life. I talked to him by telephone: once when he was in Camp David, and on another occasion when he was under siege in his compound in the West Bank. We put together plans for me to visit Palestine on a few occasions, but the demands of the process here at home meant that each trip had to be aborted because it coincided with some crisis or other in the Irish peace process or in the Middle East.

The Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has said the Health Services Executive (HSE) is overcharging for long-stay public nursing-home patients by taking their spouses income into account when calculating their fees. Emily O'Reilly said yesterday a woman complained the HSE has taken into account her income as well as that of her husband, who was admitted to a long-stay nursing home last year. This, she said, is in conflict with regulations introduced by the Department of Health last year although not with existing HSE guidelines.

The stories are still around, even three years down the line. It happened at four in the afternoon, just as the stock exchange markets were winding up for the day. The computer screens fizzled all at once. The traffic lights went dead. The subways came to a standstill. Elevators stopped between floors. Air conditioners kicked off. Bank vaults thudded shut. The hospital life-support machines kicked into emergency overdrive.

As we grow used to headbutts and high salaries in soccer, DJ Taylor looks back at the glory days, encompassed in the spirit of the Corinthians. Review by Fionnbar Callanan

Historian Michael Smith's latest book celebrates a great Irish Arctic explorer, Captain Francis Crozier. By Edward O'Hare

Colin Murphy sent off a ten-minute script to Fishamble Theatre Company, and found himself caught up in an attempt to turn Temple Bar into one great theatre

For three consecutive days, the situation in Lebanon made frontpage headlines in the Irish Times. On Thursday 13 July "Israel promises 'severe response' to Hizbullah" was the headline. The following day it read "Hizbullah retaliates with rocket attack on Haifa". Then, on Saturday, the story was "Hizbullah leader vows 'open war' on Israel". The trifling matter of the Israeli state's massive act of military aggression against a foreign country didn't make the headlines.

Among the implications of last week's ruling in the case of Mr A is that the Supreme Court no longer sees itself as primarily a court of law, but as a court of "common sense". We are frequently warned that "hard cases make bad law" and they don't come much harder. "It is scarcely possible to think of a less meritorious applicant," said Justice Hardiman, seeming to appeal not to principles of jurisprudence but to something less tangible.

La vie en rose at the Ireland AM set; local tensions on Eircom League Weekly; the Flash Families splurge out of boredom; and the cast of Pride and Joy struggle to keep their home. By Dermot Bolger

Susan McReynolds could be that new voice which Radio One desperately needs. She is bright, polished, but just that bit prissy. Perhaps it's the scripts but there is a hint of that sugary, goody-two-shoes about her that has gone in John Creedon. But she's new to the schedule as a substitute for Marian Finucane on Saturday mornings. She has promise but the material with which she had to deal on 15 July, would have challenged a Terry Wogan or a Gerry Ryan.