Vocabulary In the News : 9 September 2009 – The Irish Times

NOTE! I apologize, link to image and PDF became inactive over time.

If you’d like a more readable version of this front page (pdf format), go HERE! For the newspaper’s homepage go to : http://www.independent.ie/

- The Bank of Ireland made a blunder! It was a careless and embarrassing mistake. They blundered by double debiting some of the charges made by their card users. Oops! Unfortunately, this gaffe or error forced some of their clients into the red which means their bank accounts went into a situation where they did not have enough money to cover the charges. Thankfully, the bank caught their slip (mistake) and is refunding the money to 120,000 customers. http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/top-bank-pays-back-120000-hit--by-card-blunder-1881243.html

- In another banking story, the Green Party is asking that some directors of bank boards be sacked! They want these directors to be fired (forcibly removed) in order to reassure the public that the banking culture has changed. The sacking would effect about 18 directors as well as other personnel. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/greens-seek--removal--of-bankers--as-part-of-nama-deal-1881244.html

- In Ireland at the end of the Junior Cycle (13 to 15 year olds), students take the Junior Certificate examination, also known as the Junior Cert. The Irish Education Ministry is planning a shake-up of the exam. They want to revamp the exam; in other words, they want to improve it to better promote real understanding and skills. The shake-up would also involve reducing the number of subjects tested which is currently between 10 and 14! http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/junior-cert-revamp-will-focus-more-on-skills-than-exams-1881187.html

- And in yet another Irish banking story, a probe is being conducted by investigators and detectives into a loans and deposits controversy at the Anglo Irish Bank. A probe is simply an investigation to find out the truth. In order to probe deeper, witnesses need to be interviewed but that will take time and slow down the enquiry. In order to speed up the investigation, they are beefing up the investigative team by adding 20 officers. http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/gardai-poised-to-quiz-key-anglo-figures-in-bank-probe-1881292.html

The front page of the Irish Independent (Dublin, Ireland) taken from http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

Please, if you have any questions about the vocabulary or just want to leave a comment or criticism, don’t forget to use the comments option at the end of each post! Let me know what you think of this new format for Vocabulary In the News!