It's over!

GLee quits the FG party and the Dáil, telephoning Enda Kenny two minutes before he had signed his resignation letter and less than half an hour before telling RTÉ's News at One that "it's over".

He "didn't see himself" as chairman of the economic forum that was envisaged by Enda Kenny as a means of drawing the thoughts of the best minds in the country into Fine Gael policy and never convened a meeting. Nor did he like the fact he had to chair town hall meetings around the country at which Fine Gael frontbench spokesmen spoke. "Being a crowd puller," says George Lee, "can be quite a hollow thing." What he'll do now is unknown, but it will be in RTE as a journalist with a new role that suits his "skills sets" on €158,000 a year.

It's not over

Brangelina tell the News of the World they are blissfully happy – through their London solicitors, Schillings. The world and his wife have been gossiping about the state of the relationship ever since the News of the World published a story saying the couple had met with a divorce lawyer and divvied up their assets.

But Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who are not actually married, consult libel lawyers and seek damages from News of the World because they failed to print a denial and an apology for the "false and intrusive" allegations.

Bank shuts up shop

BoSI breaks the bad news – over 750 jobs will go as it shuts down its retail branches under the Halifax brand. The staff pay the ultimate price for the bank's massively aggressive lending policy which worked to fuel the boom. Now, says chief executive Joe Higgins, that "business model" doesn't work in the current climate. So they're off, leaving a trail of desperation behind.

Palm pilot

Sarah Palin writes the words "energy", "budget cuts", "tax" and "lift American spirits" on the palm of her left hand – with the word "budget" crossed out as she hosts a Tea Party gathering of conservative Americans in Nashville, Tennessee. During a Q&A session she is seen consulting the list less than discreetly before explaining the Palin plan for America. Barack Obama, she feels, is just a "charismatic guy with a teleprompter".

Red card for hse

Elderly tempers flare at the HSE office in north Dublin as over 70s applying for medical cards get an energy boost from the anger-fuelled adrenalin coursing through their veins. They finally snap at the unacceptable delays in processing their applications. Gardaí are called and soon restore order but pensioners despair that the HSE and Department of Health will ever restore a minimum standard of efficiency to what should be a perfectly straightforward procedure.

Fear of flying

The CIA and MI5 may have failed to cover up torture of terror suspects in Pakistan, but torture of another kind occurs in Dubai when 15 passengers are left stranded for 45 minutes on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa tower, the recently opened tallest building in the world. Staff helped the passengers climb out but, as a result, the 124th floor observation tower is now closed.

A stability pact

BrEnda, or the united front for the liberation of the Fine Gael party, form a mutual appreciation club. Richard Bruton loyally supports his leader Enda Kenny, who promises he'll "be himself" and "do better". But we all know the stability pact will only last until the next Kenny gaffe when Brute force will mean the end of Enda.

Ice station berlin

JEdward shelter from the storm of tweenie-love as they launch their first single 'Ice Ice Baby' at HMV in Dundrum town centre, but under pressure is poor Horst Holfreter, a homeless busker in Berlin who decided to build himself an igloo to shelter from the snow and ice. Commuters in the area were at first a little nervous of him wielding a shovel at the station entrance, but then delighted he had cleared the snow as his ice-house helped prevent people slipping on the frozen pavement.

Alexander the great

RIP Alexander McQueen. The "hooligan of fashion" is found dead in his Mayfair apartment. His dramatic shows, the bumster low slung trousers that have redrawn the silhouette and his "gothic aesthetic" as Vogue calls it, left him hailed the design genius of his generation. He was unable to come to terms with the deaths of his mentor and friend, the famed stylist Isabella Blow, who committed suicide after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, his aunt Dolly and his mum Joyce. So much grief proved too much.