Jeremy Paxman's Newsnight Challenge Quiz

JEREMY PAXMAN'S Newsnight Challenge Quiz in last week's Media Guardian has gems such as:

Which presenter complained that they were having a difficult time on air because "I've got Ian Smith coming in my ear"?

Go on, test yourself.

FÁS Failure: FÁS boss pockets half a million while community groups axed, FÁS training budgets slashed

FIANNA FÁIL Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has defended the huge pay-out to former FÁS Director General Rody Molloy (left) who was given a "larger than necessary" severance package because the Government wanted to "move the organisation on and make sure it changed".

Molloy retired on a pension of €111,245 per year and also received a once-off lump sum of €333,735 and two other separate payments of €55,622. He was also allowed to keep a car.

This is all at a time when Community Development Programmes are axed and people trying to get back to work through FÁS jobs training and employment programmes are having their training budgets slashed.

RTÉ says in its report headed Coughlan defends Molloy severance package:
"[Rody Molloy's] departure in November 2008 came after months of criticism at the excessive expenses incurred by executives of FÁS.

"The Tánaiste said his package was agreed following advice from her officials and under sanction from the Department of Finance." (My emphasis.)

So the Fianna Fáil minister and her advisers are responsible for the half-million pay-out to get rid of someone who, it appears, wasn't up to the job.

Whatever happened to the sack?

Andy Murray: Great Scot Swiss rolled by Federer

A VALIANT effort by Scotland's Andy Murray in the Australian Open tennis final but Switzerland's Roger Federer is in a class of his own.

The Scottish tennis ace squandered five set points in an agonising tie-break on his way to losing to the Swiss champion in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13/11).

During the closing ceremony in Melbourne, Andy made a tearful apology to the fans who faithfully supported their hero.

Bloody Sunday, January 30th 1972: The British Army's elite Parachute Regiment massacres Civil Rights marchers

Sunday Bloody Sunday - Wolfe Tones

'Bloody Sunday' movie trailer

Roy Greenslade: Death of Spanish editor who defied Franco | World BB News

Roy Greenslade: Death of Spanish editor who defied Franco | World BB News

Tabloid Watch on: Media fosters hate crimes, says University of Exeter report

Report says media is a motivating factor in anti-Muslim hate crime

A REPORT published today by Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Dr Robert Lambert MBE, from the European Muslim Research Centre at the University of Exeter, looks at anti-Muslim hate crime and Islamophobia in London. It is, they say, the first report in a ten-year project to look at these issues in cities across Europe, Tabloid Watch writes.

Lambert, incidentally:

headed Scotland Yard's Muslim contact unit, which helped improve relations between the police and Britain's Islamic communities. The unit won praise from even long-standing critics of the police, and Lambert was awarded an MBE.

So he's well-qualified to write about such issues.

Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: a London Case Study reveals:

how perpetrators of hate-crimes against Muslims are invariably motivated by a negative view of Muslims acquired from mainstream or extremist nationalist media reports or commentaries.

So not something that is going to widely covered by the tabloids then?

No...