European Commission acts on complaint by Irish woman. ... read full story / add a comment

Lidl appears to have 'lowered the bar' by urging shoppers to 'don't spend your cash on trash' by shopping in Tesco. The question needs to be asked is whether such an advertising campaign can be justified? and what are the issues surrounding such a stark and attention grabbing ad campaign? ... read full story / add a comment

The sun is shining and the athletic and graceful elite of the tennis world
battle it out for glory on the grass of Wimbledon. Perfect role models for your kids
it seems; hard working, dedicated, healthy, polite (mostly).
But draw the line at letting your kids emulate what they are wearing. ... read full story / add a comment

Concern is also growing that, after Northern Rock and Bear Stearns, another bank casualty is looming on this side of the Atlantic. Many are now focusing on Irish banks, which have lent aggressively during the property boom. Irish Nationwide, which was recently given a 'C' rating from Moody's - not a ringing endorsement - is at the centre of rumours. The bank, with assets of €16bn, had a reputation for offering 100 per cent loans on property, and took equity stakes in many deals. ... read full story / add a comment

The finals of the Galway Fair-trade Committee’s JUST DESSERTS desert making competition attracted over Two Hundred and Fifty people to the Galway City Museum last Friday. ... read full story / add a comment

''Women in Saudi Arabia are willing to buy your cars. But you need first to to support the
campaign to allow women to drive cars. Write to your government officials make the non-
governmental organisations aware, inform the parliament members in your countries about the
status of women in Saudi Arabia' ... read full story / add a comment

. ... read full story / add a comment

We expect that a top Irish obstetrician with so much experience and training would have a firm understanding of what normal birth entails.

We should also expect that all maternity practices are based on the latest international clinical guidelines......are our expectations too high?

Read on.... ... read full story / add a comment

As if proof were needed of how the idyllic peaceful ways of Ireland are different from Ilford London along comes this next story in foreign silliness - One small town entrepeneur & champion of street crime victims in Rumford, North East England is making consumer news at the moment. The "Bladerunner" company has been making kevlar gloves for some years now, but this year began production of stylish stab proof hooded jackets which are now proving a street cred must amongst the ever more paranoid & cautious parent of i-pod back to schoolers.
Testimonial writers & satisfied customers even tell tales of their foiled stabbing at bank machines - "your hoody saved my life". ... read full story / add a comment

Just as the British ministry of Defence admit they're on the long list of Western military offices hacked by the People's Republic of China - & gun-ho patriots demand surgical strikes on China, the esteemed advocator of family & caucasian values of beauty and healthy living which is the Mattel Toy Corporations announce their 3rd product recall this year.

Less than 150 years ago, a female kid was happy to play with a bit of sackcloth stuffed with straw or a male kid was encouraged to tie a bit of pig gut to a forked stick. Posh kids (of the male variety) were offered lead soldiers to re-enact regimental glories at Waterloo and posh kids (of the child girl variety) were offered endless coloured ribons of the Laura Ingles "little house on the prarie" type.

Then Mattel came along and sold us Barbie. ... read full story / add a comment

The government has announced a new tax for oil and gas finds ... read full story / add a comment

Community media advocates are demanding that Mexico's congress proceed with major
reforms to the Federal Law on Radio and television that would allow for diversity in the
medium. This is spearheaded by Article 19 , the National Centre for Social Communications
(CENCOS) and AMARC Assoc.of Community Radio Broadcasters and IFEX , International
Freedom of Expression eXchange. ... read full story / add a comment

"If you don't do anything else this month, you need to go watch this special on how rigged the so-called "free" markets are.

It's clear, concise, amusing in a wry, quirky way...and terribly sad, as it shows that it is simple to explain all this in a comprehensible manner, and yet it isn't by the supposedly fair US media. Commentator Max Keiser does a remarkable job in describing how completely ugly this is, and arrives at the same conclusion I did - playing in a rigged game is a fool's errand."

- Bob O'Brien's Sanity Check
... read full story / add a comment

I was stunned by the implications of this little story I just spotted on RTE. It seems Dublin hasn't had an IKEA before. How did you escape the stylish homogenous cheaply produced and easy to assemble look ?

Will the FF/Green coalition have any influence on peoples' need or want for such furniture & interior bits and bobs? ... read full story / add a comment

La brita registaro puŝas antaŭen siajn planojn por reformo de akvo kiun kaŭzos amasan senlaborecon, degenerigon de servadoj, kaj bazon de prezpostulo por la utileco de akvo...

... read full story / add a comment

The singularly profit driven Corporations have lied and lied regarding food additives, tobacco and climate changing pollutants. They only respond to VERY LARGE financial disincentives. A drive to sign up whole populations for a class action against these polluters is a great start for future mental and physical health.

This action may also reveal the combination of additives in foods and the water supply that impairs the human will. Never before in human history have entire populations become so subservient, helpless and passive in the most alarming circumstances. The apathy and complacency witnessed today in the face of horrendous illegal wars, pollution induced climate change/GLOBAL warming, to name the two most catastrophic events, is beyond comprehension.

Hit them hard and hit them in the pocket, the "class" of the action should include the entire population -- you and your children have been poisoned! ... read full story / add a comment

While the government is busily celebrating the greed festival that are SSIAs, (the scheme by which the already well off are made even more well off by the much less well off) they are showing a much less generous attitude to the hapless folk who have gone online to order a few cheap CDs and DVDs from other countries – almost certainly Christmas presents in most cases.
... read full story / add a comment

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/792063.stm reports that there has been a spate
of heroin deaths in Glasgow, England and Wales, also. There is nothing on Indymedia
Scotland.In Ireland there have been six deaths, four people are currently being treated
in Beaumont for complications.

There have been 43 cases in Scotland resulting in 20 deaths.
16 in England and Wales. ... read full story / add a comment

Sir Clive Thompson, former Shell marketing executive, is the director of the now-collapsed Farepak firm which has lost 150,000 low-income savers around €600 each. Thompson, chairman of Farepak's parent company European Home Retail, has a long track record of controversy - in 1998 he made a speech at the CBI annual dinner where he asserted that statutory union recognition should be put in a handbook to help firms improve their "pest control techniques". ... read full story / add a comment

In recent years many people have realised fantastic health benefits from an approach to diet based on whole, organic food supplemented by high quality food supplements to make up for the cumulative loss of vital minerals, vitamins and other essential nutrition resulting from consumption of the denatured food which most of us are forced to buy throughout our lives. There is a huge groundswell of interest in this issue as people convert in droves to a truly healthy way of eating. A prominent UK exponent of this approach to diet who regularly arranges seminars in Ireland on this topic has spoken to capacity audiences of up to 300 people around Ireland who are turning away from pharmaceutical driven medicine to taking control of their own health by learning about how to nourish their own bodies properly - something the medical profession itself is still profoundly and shamefully disinterested in. ... read full story / add a comment