FOREIGN intelligence services spying on the European Parliament?

GROUPS all over the world, including in Dublin, took advantage of the 65th birthday of Aung San Su Kyi to pressurise jailers in her native Burma to release her, and hold genuinely democratic elections later this year.

THE food industry has spent €1 billion lobbying politicians to block an easy-to-understand labelling system, according to an expert group.

EU foreign ministers urged Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, now entering its fourth year, but put off concrete proposals until their next meeting next month.

The EU world, at least from Brussels, appears to be falling apart.

IRISH girls are leadingEurope in breaking through gender barriers in education – except when it comes to engineering and manufacturing.

THE Government should be able to take some steps on foot of the two reports into the banking crisis that has cost taxpayers more than €72 billion to date, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has indicated.

AS politicians increasingly shape their policies around what will get them elected, picking who to vote for has become a difficult issue for citizens.

MONEY and Power.

DURING the week a headline in an international business newspaper declared that the Irish were taking the austerity in the same way as they suffer a hangover – lying on a sofa moaning.