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.

THE European Union’s €750 billion support package announced yesterday has prompted strong growth in the value of the euro and in European shares but also prompted warnings that the market’s fears were merely allayed rather than dead.

THE Greek tragedy is not just a tale of a country going broke, of corruption, or when living beyond one’s means finally catches up with a nation, warns Nikos Ksidakis.

FINANCE Ministers were working against a tight deadline last night to set up a European rescue fund before the markets opened this morning.