WHENEVER the age-old challenge looms of explaining the mysteries of sex to children, parents can be uncomfortable to the point of embarrassment.

THE crisis in the health service is set to deepen this week with nurses cranking up their fight for more pay and shorter working hours and Health Minister Mary Harney moving to recruit hundreds of specialists in a bid to break the grip of consultants over the system.

THE inexorable rise in racist crime, especially physical assault, is an extremely worrying trend.

Health Minister Mary Harney is embattled on three fronts.

The United States has been vocal about the corruption at the United Nations Organisation, the World Bank, and other international institutions.

FAR reaching political, economic, employment and social implications flow from rip-off Ireland’s soaring inflation rate which is now 5.1% — well above the European average.

AFTER an inexplicable — and inexcusable — 35-year lapse, parents throughout Cork city and county will heave a sigh of relief that inoculation of newborn babies against TB is to be re-introduced next October.

AS THE bitter dispute between nurses and the Health Service Executive gets ever deeper, the Government faces another major row as highly-paid consultants threaten to thwart its bid to smash Ireland’s two-tier health system.

IN THE wake of the BertieGate loans scandal, long-promised legislation on political ethics has at last been published.

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin’s promise to double the level of State funding for every primary school child in the country — provided, of course, Fianna Fáil return to government after the General Election — smacks of blatant electioneering.