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At the Irish United Nations Veterans' Association (IUNVA) annual wreath laying ceremony at the UN Memorial Garden, Mount Temple Road, Dublin yesterday were (from left): Jim Moloney, IUNVA Limerick; Patrick Whelan, Royal Air Force Association; Maj Michael Kearney MBE, Combined Irish Regiments, Liverpool; Dick Rockford, IUNVA, The Curragh; and Joe Fitzpatrick, IUNVA, Dublin.

Photograph: Joe St Leger

State life sentences may be against human rights law
The State watchdog for human rights has told the Government that its power to determine the length of life sentences for prisoners such as Malcolm MacArthur is in breach of international human rights law.

Frustration as climate change talks stall
Representatives of 190 countries have been playing a diplomatic poker game at the UN Climate Change Summit in Nairobi for the past week, with almost none of them prepared to spell out what they intend to do about global warming.
Northern Assembly election set to be held next March
Northern Secretary Peter Hain will this week announce an Assembly election for early March next year, according to well-informed London and Dublin sources.

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Ireland

Overseas aid to reach €814m
Ireland's spend on Overseas Development Aid (ODA) is to increase to its highest ever level next year to €814 million, it will be announced in the Estimates this week. p
Candidates with money to spend have advantage
Election spending: Who spends wins. It's an uncomfortable fact about democracies, but electoral success is often as much about the amount of money available to a candidate or party as any other factor, including policy or ideology. Empirical evidence shows that the more a candidate or party spends on an election, the more likely that that candidate or party will get elected, and Ireland is no exception. p
Three die on the roads over the weekend
Three people have died on the roads over the weekend in counties Limerick and Meath. Their deaths bring to 321 the number of people who have died this year on the Republic's roads this year. p
Hugh Leonard honoured at 80
Actors, playwrights, critics and directors were among the large crowd who turned out last night to pay tribute to "one of Ireland's great writers", Hugh Leonard, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Friday. p
502,440 names deleted from electoral register
A total of 502,440 names have been deleted from the draft electoral register as part of a major updating campaign that starting during the summer. p

Finance

Texaco Ireland reports €9.1m loss
Texaco Ireland, part of Californian oil giant Chevron Texaco, reported a €9.1 million operating loss last year, citing increased competition and pressure on its margins. p
Batchelors wins €1m deal with Tesco to supply smoothies in UK
Irish food group Batchelors has won a contract to supply its Sqeez smoothies to Tesco in the UK, in a deal estimated to be worth up to €1 million in the first year. p
Construction growth rate slows
Construction activity remained buoyant last month, though the pace of growth slowed as housing activity fell to its lowest in a year, new figures from Ulster Bank show. p

World

35 Iraqi police recruits killed by bomber
IRAQ: A suicide bomber killed 35 Iraqi police recruits yesterday, the bloodiest such attack in weeks. Hours later, under pressure to avert civil war, the prime minister told a parliament crackling with sectarian tension that he would fire a host of under-performing ministers. p
Poland at odds with EU over talks with Russia
POLAND: Poland will threaten to veto the start of talks on a new EU co-operation pact with Russia today unless Moscow agrees to liberalise its oil and gas sector first. p
Royal says only she can 'beat the right'
FRANCE: Defiant French regional leader Ségolène Royal, snared in a row over teachers, urged Socialists to make her the party's presidential candidate in a vote this week, saying she alone could defeat the right next spring. p

Features

The accidental flautist
Technology is about to open up the whole musical soundscape for the flute, William Dowdall tells Arminta Wallace p
Relishing life in that state of uncertainty
Critics have to fight the urge to label Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, who likes to avoid categorisation of her work , she tells Aidan Dunne. p

Sport

Happy days when this is routine
RUGBY: Lansdowne Road is becoming a little spoiled. An oddly colourless, relatively subdued crowd had become so sated by the first half that they resorted to a Mexican wave during the second - a sure sign of ennui. Yet this, after all, was Ireland's biggest win over a Tri-Nations team. p
You can't keep a good Robson down
SOCCER: To those who believe modern footballers are a pampered breed predisposed to missing games for the flimsiest of reasons, Bobby Robson must be something of an idol. p
Jubilant Dunne ticks all the boxes
BOXING: And so Bernard Dunne has answered. For three years since he set off on the path from Los Angeles under trainer Freddie Roach, people privately questioned whether it was all too good to be true and in the same breath would utter the names of two former world champions, Barry McGuigan and Wayne McCullough. But from the first punch he threw in the professional ranks, superbantamweight Dunne has been the guiding light of Irish boxing. p

Opinion

Review needed of the way Irish aid is channelled through Ethiopian regime
The Government here continues to channel millions of euro in aid through Ethiopian government structures despite the administration's poor record on human rights, writes John O'Shea p