Ireland has slumped to mid-table mediocrity in the European rankings for telecommunications competitiveness.

While the Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence. By Antonia Juhasz (LA Times)

(AGI) - Caltanissetta - A very wide-ranging anti-mafia operation against the clans of Gela (Caltanissetta) is underway in the area itself as well as in various other Italian provinces, with the carrying out of 88 arrest warrants.

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte died of a heart attack in Santiago, Chile on Sunday, 10 December. He became the dictator of Chile in 1973 when a military coup, backed by the United States, ousted the democratically elected regime of President Salvador Allende was overthrown. Pinochet ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990 and had been under investigation for human rights abuses during his period as dictator.

A new household survey of Iraq has found that approximately 600,000 people havebeen killed in the violence of the war that began with the U.S. invasion in March 2003.The survey was conducted by an American and Iraqi team of public healthresearchers.

The prospects of all-out civil war in Iraq and even a regional conflict have become much more real over the past three months as sectarian violence, insurgent and terrorist attacks, and criminal activities have risen significantly, according to the latest United Nations report on the war-torn country released today.

A report released Tuesday by a United Nations group documents the staggering levels of global inequality in household wealth. The report gives a partial portrait of a world society characterized by extreme concentrations of wealth in the hands of the richest sections of the population, with the position of much of the remainder ranging from general economic insecurity to dire poverty.

(AGI) - Vatican City, Dec. 8 - "From their ancient Christian roots, we know that the populace draws nourishment to build their present and future." This was part of the prayer said by Benedict XVI this afternoon in Spagna square, in which he entrusted Rome, Italy, Europe and the world to the Virgin Mary.

 Conor Lenihan TD, Minister of State for Irish Aid and Jan Egeland, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, on Friday evening (8 December) called for concerted international action to protect civilians in Darfur. 

At their quarterly meeting in Maynooth on 7 December the Irish Catholic bishops welcomed the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection of 30 November last.  However, even at this stage, Bishops wish to register their deep concern at the lack of any reference to the moral issues involved.