All the good oranges come from Spain to Irish shops in January, so its time to make some marmalade. Darina Allen tells how.

Now the new year reviving old desires, the thoughtful soul to solitude retires... but alas for our politicians they must now get stuck in to a gruelling final run-in to next year's general election.

The new year got off to the most tragic start for the family of a young Dublin man. Martin McLoughlin was just 21 and had been celebrating with friends when he was stabbed to death in Jury's new Croke Park Hotel in the early hours of 2006. After a record number of murders in 2005, he is the first casualty of this new year.

Marionette of the sporting gods, new years' lists and cliché, please fill our boots as follows over the next 12 months:

Jerusha McCormack reports from China one the news industry there

Mark McConnell was falsely arrested, beaten and abused by Donegal gardaí. At the Morris Tribunal, McConnell represented himself, cross-examining gardaí with the fluency of a senior counsel and earning praise from the judge. Now he is taking a civil case against the Garda Síochána for wrongful arrest. He speaks to Gerard Cunningham

"Santa is an informer' became the latest piece of graffiti to be daubed in republican areas of Belfast this week. Over the past ten days four republicans have been named as British Agents in the Irish media, another three names are also being mentioned. The volume of names being 'leaked' has led to suspicion that British intelligence is attempting to detract attention from its role in bringing down the Stormont Assembly while simultaneously sowing confusion within republican ranks.

MI5 has run spies and informants in Ireland throughout the Northern Ireland conflict and continues to do so, according to a former British intelligence officer. By Colm Heatley

A forthcoming survey on otters may reveal high levels of a chemical harmful to human health in Irish water. By Shay Fennelly

This story was submitted for the RTÉ Francis Mcmanus Award 2005, and was broadcast on RTÉ Radio One. Pádraig Standún is a priest and novelist who has had novels published in English and Irish,as well as writing for theatre, television and magazines.