IMAGINE the heartbreak of having to end the grievously damaged life of a loved one by turning off a life-support machine.

WE HAVE a long tradition of punching above our weight in United Nations peacekeeping missions.

THIS IS probably the worst time of the year to be short of cash, a truly appalling time to be poor.

ELEVEN days of talking about reducing CO² emissions, involving 15,000 politicians and officials from 180 nations began in Bali yesterday.

BEFORE the Medical Council can notify either the Minister for Health or an employer that a doctor is under investigation or even suspended, a fitness to practise inquiry must have been held and its negative finding must have been upheld by the High Court.

THE total of compromised Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers has risen to 703, according to the Department of Social and Family Affairs, which is also investigating a further 409 numbers that it suspects were illegally obtained.

POLITICAL fundraising has always been a murky business, carried out by the very smoothest party apparatchiks on the fringes where business and politics collude.

IT IS difficult to understand, let alone tolerate, the mind set that would condemn a person to death because they named a teddy bear “Mohammed”.

IRISH people have never been so rich.

A GOVERNMENT report warned yesterday that a fifth of our native plants are under threat because of global warming.