A MAJOR medical monitoring group has claimed 80,000 Europeans could die from swine flu in the coming months, naming Ireland as one of the EU’s hotspots for the deadly pandemic.

IN his letter (July 9), Anthony Leeding may be correct in implying a second rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish people is necessary to enable Britain to withdraw from the EU, if that is indeed what the British people want.

FATUOUS comment of the month must go to your political correspondent Shaun Connolly (June 13) who wrote, regarding our upcoming compulsory resitting of the Lisbon Treaty referendum (since we gave the wrong answer last time) – “The economic crash has so shaken the nation that any notion of a no protest vote has been terrified out of people by the plight of pathetic, bankrupt no-EU Iceland”.

THE European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was founded in the 1960s to achieve economic growth, full employment, an increase in productivity, financial stability and a constant improvement of living standards by abolishing trade restrictions among member states.

INTERNATIONAL controversy is growing about the safety of a plastic widely used to make baby bottles, sealants on food and drink cans and reusable food and drink containers.

YOUR report headlined ‘Pharmacists have to swallow similar medicine as taxi drivers’ (Irish Examiner, November 17) contained several inaccuracies and was incorrect in its basic premise that pharmacists are uncompetitive and facing major regulatory liberalisation in the new year.

THE European new car market grew 1.7% in the first half of 2006. Sales in Ireland rose by 5.8% over the same period, according to a JATO Dynamics analysis of definitive sales data for the EU and EFTA markets.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair will tomorrow tell the European Parliament how he intends to manage his six months at the EU helm.

ACEA, the Association of European Car Manufacturers, has reported that commercial vehicle registrations in West Europe dropped by 3% year on year to 531,720 units during the fourth quarter of 2003.

Concern over illegal tax breaks has stopped work at the gigantic "Snow White" offshore field near Norway.