IT IS reassuring and appropriate that Finance Minister Michael Noonan acknowledged yesterday that recently enacted insolvency legislation may have to be “tweaked”.

INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday.

MISAO OKWAW, the world’s oldest woman was 117 yesterday. The Japanese lady confirms the findings of a 2011 analysis published in The Lancet which attributed Japanese longevity to a number of factors, including diet, social equality and public health measures.

THERE is something chilling about the response given by most Cork City-based members of the Dáil to two simple questions posed by the Irish Examiner on Tuesday in relation to the tribulations of Cork Airport.

WHILE upwards of 700 patients wait on trolleys every day, it appears that some HSE managers like to rest easy and enjoy a taste of the good life.

IRELAND is set to become the first country in Europe to ban branded cigarette packets. The Seanad passed the plain packaging law yesterday, which also makes it illegal to sell cigarettes in lipstick-style containers designed for female smokers.

THIS is National Tree Week so it’s an opportunity for us to consider the place trees have in our world and if we might do more to extend and enhance the wooded areas around us, especially as so much of our modern landscape is a monoculture supporting either grass or commercial forestry.

AS our correspondent Cathy Tobin reminds us today the wrench of emigration, the separation from a loved family never eases for some Irish people.

JUST as the worst consequences of the economic collapse begin to recede for a growing number of people, one legacy issue is reaching a decisive moment for our society and for tens of thousands of individuals and families.

AS ever more people, individuals and families, come to depend on the rental market for their housing needs it is appropriate that some measures are being prepared to offer some sort of stability and security to tenants.