Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams says remarks on Tuesday by Direct Rule Minister Shaun Woodward seeking to abdicate responsibility for the failure of the Department of Health over the issue of suicide in the Six Counties have damaged confidence in his ability to deal with this very serious issue. Free article

A government u-turn on the principle of equality, new privatisation proposals for the Irish health services sector and higher health insurance charges for customers. Move over Michael McDowell, Health Minister Mary Harney is centrestage this week when it comes to propagating the Progressive Democrat philosophy of encouraging inequality, penalising the poor and less well off while pampering big business, writes ROBBIE SMYTH. Free article

Sinn Féin MEPs Mary Lou McDonald and Bairbre de Brún, along with party health spokespersons Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD and John O'Dowd MLA, joined forces with autism campaigners last week to demand greater support for families caring for children with autism. Free article

Sinn Féin Dáil spokesperson on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Arthur Morgan, has challenged Minister Dick Roche to provide a cost benefit analysis of the government proposal to hand state land over to private developers in exchange for affordable housing at less salubrious locations. Free article

One of the most divisive annual meetings of Clonakilty Town Council in recent decades took place last week, which saw Sinn Féin "stabbed in the back" by a Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition, which ensured that the outgoing independent mayor was returned for a second year in office - the first time this has happened in Clonakilty since the mid 1950s. Free article

On Tuesday night, Sinn Féin Councillor Jimmy Fleming was elected chair of Gorey Town Council, becoming the first Sinn Féin council chair in Wexford since the late John Sheehan (left) two decades ago Free article

Thousands of people took to the streets of Dublin last Saturday to mark Pride 2005, a celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender life in Ireland today Free article

NEARLY 31,000 people died and half-a-million were made homeless in Sri Lanka when the tSunami hit last Christmas. Yet, six months after the disaster, some tens of thousands of people in the country have not yet received any kind of aid and it is a mystery to everyone how they have managed to survive. Free article

One of the most popular destinations for Irish holidaymakers is the beautiful country of Turkey, with its miles of golden beaches, wonderful Mediterranean climate and friendly people. However, Turkey's hidden side is little known to the tens of thousands who travel there each year. Underneath the facade of democracy, fascism and oppression thrive. Before booking your holiday, we the undersigned would ask people to read the following: In 2000 the Turkish Government revealed its plans to replace the old dormitory- style prisons with a new isolation-style prison know as F-types. Prostesting the introduction of the new prison system, hundreds of political prisoners embarked on a hunger strike in October of that year. Initially, the strike attracted widespread support from all sectors of Turkish society, forcing the government to postpone its plans pending the outcome of a public consultation. Many intellectuals, writers and lawyers, doctors and human rights institutions had expressed concerns regarding the physical and psychological impact of isolation on prisoners and their families. The process was cut short, however, when the government ordered the wholesale transfer of political prisoners from the old prisons to the F-types, using whatever means necessary. Free article

Britain is continuously violating the so-called Zurich-London agreements which gave Cyprus its independence and Britain the right to establish its bases on the island. This was the gist of a forceful presentation Stefanos Stefanou, Secretary of the Cyprus Peace Council, delivered at a meeting of the European Parliament's "Intergroup For Peace Initiatives" in Brussels on Tuesday 14 June. Free article