THOUGH we seem utterly unprepared for this kind of weather, we are still largely responsible for our own actions and their consequences.

IF YOU were in Chicago yesterday you would have been faced with snow and temperatures of -12°C. If you were lucky enough to be in Oslo you would have been a tad cooler, temperatures around -15ºC were recorded in the Norwegian capital.

The National Consumer Agency released a report that shows Irish consumers have been changing their shopping behaviour to get the best value in the midst of the recession.

The announcement that the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) has decommissioned the remainder of its weapons is another significant step towards the establishment of civil harmony in the North.

THE VHI’s 1.5 million customers face an increase in charges of 8% next month.

BERTIE AHERN did nothing wrong when he secured tax-free status under the artists’ exemption scheme for earnings from his autobiography. This, after all, is small cheese to a man who can claim travel costs even though he has a state car and driver.

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan gave a bravura performance yesterday.

NOT for the first, or tenth, time we report on overcrowded prisons today.

THE inadequacy of sentences handed down by the courts in child pornography cases is a cause for alarm given the nature of this most heinous of crimes.

WITH severe weather conditions set to run for the next few days, the ongoing failure to spread grit on treacherous secondary roads and in housing estates has been a damning comment on the local authorities.