METRO Friday, September 18, 2009 D METRODigest BUNGLING thieves alerted police they were in the middle of a burglary by pulling an alarm cord thinking it was a light switch. They ran off as officers arrived at the house in Maidstone, Kent. Police said: They should know not to switch lights on, let alone pull a panic cord. TIME is running out for urban adventurers to register for this years City Chase. The part-scavenger-hunt, part-adventure race calls on competitors to complete a series of fun, mental and hilarious challenges all over Dublin city in as quick a time as possible... using only public transport. The City Chase will kick off tomorrow in Merrion Square Park at 10am and Chasers will need to be on site from 9am. Teams of two will get a series of clues from which they must figure out the venue, but they wont know the nature of the challenges that await them until they get there. You can enter online until midnight tonight, or on the day up until 10am. Log on to www.citychasedublin.com to enter. Last chance to join Dublins City Chase IRISH families urgently need to change their lifestyles to combat the ticking timebomb of child obesity, President Mary McAleese told an international conference on childhood obesity in Dublin yesterday. With one in ten children classified as obese, President McAleese warned the country was storing up a host of health, social and economic problems. Modern lifestyles may have let shared family meals slip down our list of priorities but now we can see the price being paid by some of our children, she said. Speaking at the Moving Towards Health event, the President said, although the rise in obesity has been called an epidemic by the World Health Organization, the ticking timebomb does not raise the same level of alarm as swine flu. McAleese: Child obesity is an epidemic THE funeral for the Olympic bronze medal winning boxer Darren Sutherland, who was found hanged at his south London flat, will be held in Navan, Co Meath, on Monday. The 27-year-old Irishman, tipped as a possible future professional world champion, was found at his flat in Bromley on Monday by his promoter and friend Frank Maloney. Sutherland (pictured), nicknamed The Dazzler, won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics as a middleweight before turning professional late last year. An inquest into his death was opened and adjourned yesterday. Funeral arrangement for boxer Darren Irish banking shares soar after Namaby con dohertySHARES in Irelands main banks closed up substantially yesterday on the back of the disclosure of details of the Nama legislation by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan. AIB was up more than 28 per cent, while Bank of Ireland recorded gains of almost 18 per cent. The Irish Stock Exchange closed up more than three per cent overall. Taoiseach Brian Cowen had yesterday insisted that the Nama legislation was not a bail-out for banks, but faces oppo- sition following the rise in share prices. The Green Party yesterday threatened to collapse the Government unless it gets changes to how Nama will operate. Environment Minister and party leader John Gormley warned concessions sought by his rank and file were funda- mental to their continued participation in the Cabinet. If the programme for government is rejected, if Nama is rejected, theres no question that we could not continue our participation in government, he told RT radio. Separately, experts have clashed over whether Mr Lenihans prediction of a ten per cent rise in property prices cen- tral to the success or failure of the Nama bad bank plan to buy toxic debt off the banks is realistic. Ronan Lyons, economist for the coun- trys largest property website, Daft, said he wasnt convinced by Mr Lenihans claims that the housing market was now bottoming out. Mr Lyons said the success of the 54billion project depended on forecasts that property would bottom out at 47 per cent below peak prices, before rising ten per cent by 2019. While it seems reasonable, its actu- ally quite a brave assumption, he said. David Duffy of the ESRI economic think-tank also believes housing prices will continue to slide. However, he in- sisted they could bounce back in line with Nama predictions. It doesnt seem unreasonable to recover by ten per cent over ten years. That would be a fairly moderate recovery, he said. The ESRI, which advises the Govern- ment on policy decisions, predicts house prices will continue dropping next year, slowing to a more moderate decline in 2011. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html