Hans von Sponeck quit as head of the UN in Iraq in disgust at the failure of UN sanctions. He tells Colin Murphy about meeting Saddam Hussein, his diplomatic efforts to avert the war and the disgrace of the sanctions regime

GRANTA SPRING ISSUE 93: The Magazine of New Writing, €15 in bookshops
Always use the word “Africa” or “Darkenss” or “Safari” in your title... Also useful are words such as “Guerillas”, “Timeless”, “Primordial” and “Tribal”.

The Irish Times' new columnist is a leading neocon, a Washington insider who supports torture conditionally and thinks the invasion of Iraq was a risk worth taking. By Colin Murphy

Journalist Sam Smyth has fawned on Michael McDowell for a decade-and-a-half. Coincidentally, he has been in a position to publish several 'scoops' connected with the Department of Justice

Irish aid organisations called on the Government to make 2010 the new target date for reaching the overseas aid target of 0.7 per cent of GNP. Sound familiar? It should. The target – intended to boost aid from rich countries to poor countries – was first set at the United Nations over 30 years ago. In 2000, with Ireland campaigning for a seat on the UN Security Council, Bertie Ahern announced that we would reach the target by 2007. "We have now unprecedented prosperity in Ireland, but we remain a deeply concerned and caring people," he told an audience in New York.