MONDAY

Timing is everything. FBI director Robert Mueller's publicised letter to Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill accuses the SNP minister's release of Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds as giving 'comfort to terrorists'. But the US lecturing of Scotland on morality coincides with publication of the CIA internal investigation admitting members of its personnel are an affront to justice. Allegations of illegal and inhumane torture of Muslim prisoners include disturbing TV news reconstructions of what exactly constitutes 'waterboarding' – a sanitised term for drowning...

"Do we continue to live in darkness, seeing only fear, anger, bitterness, resentment, blaming, bemoaning our loss, always looking backwards, blaming, blaming, blaming?" The mother of murdered Sebastian Creane delivers a moving eulogy to her son's brief 22 years on earth, including her wish for the family of his killer that "the darkness be taken away from them and the light shine on their lives". Her words show a heartening generosity of spirit in a merciless world.

TUESDAY

Back to school time for financial experts unable to do their maths 'ekker' correctly. That could be what special government adviser Alan Ahearne is suggesting after a group of 46 economists, including 10 college professors, sign an open letter to the government suggesting Nama valuations just don't compute. Prof Brian Lucey of Trinity College drafted the document, saying he contacted about 250 lecturers and not one of them had come back to disagree with his view that the banks' bad loans will eventually cost the government (and ultimately the taxpayer) a grossly overvalued €30bn. 'Delusional', and having 'a startling lack of understanding' counters Alan Ahearne. Obviously speaking about the Lucey document, not the Finance Department's own track record with tricky sums...

WEDNESDAY

As America's first family holiday on neighbouring Martha's Vineyard, a death at the Kennedy family home in Hyannis Port brings an Irish-American political dynasty to a close. Tributes are paid to Ted Kennedy's political bravery and championing of liberal causes in Washington and the world beyond. But in the light and darkness characteristic of the Kennedy clan, the Democratic Party senator's name is forever linked with a tragedy much closer to home. In his deserting the scene after he drove his car off the bridge at Chappaquiddick in 1969 and left Mary Jo Kopechne to drown, that much-lauded bravery was markedly absent...

A very different 'brother's' passing is cause for joy. Channel Four takes Big Brother producers Endemol into the diary room to reveal it won't renew their contract when it expires next summer. "I do think it has sort of had its day," says former winner Craig Phillips.

THURSDAY

"Half-wits, economic illiterates and idiot headbangers" is Michael O'Leary's verdict. He's not on about former BB contestants but campaigners for a No vote on Lisbon. The Ryanair boss says he'll raise €500,000 for a Yes vote. Maybe he'll fund it by making passengers stand, or charging them when they need to spend a penny. But Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald is having none of the Yes side's Nasty Nick, arguing that his business is built on low pay, poor working conditions and hidden costs to the consumer.

FRIDAY

The terrifying reality of 18 years of imprisonment is revealed by the reappearance of a young woman in San Francisco. Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in 1991 when just 11 years old. No school, no doctor and no contact with the outside world, she gave birth to the first of her two children, alleged to be those of her abductor, at 14. Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender, and his wife Nancy are charged with her kidnapping. Her name joins a long list which includes Natascha Kampusch and Elizabeth Fritzl, stark reminders of evil darkness but also of the stolen children who eventually made it back into the light...

You Cannot Be Serious

"If I croak, if you don't put me upside down over Marilyn, I'll haunt you for the rest of my life."

So said the late Richard Poncher. But his obedient spouse Elsie, now in the need of ready cash, is auctioning the vault above Marilyn Monroe where her husband's corpse has lain for 23 years. So that's €3.2m for Mrs P, and a 'Goodbye, Norma Jean' for her creepy husband.