A NEW children's and women's regional hospital is an urgent necessity, Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams told Stormont last week. The MLA's call for immediate action was endorsed by the Assembly who urged UUP Health Minister Michael McGimpsey to set a date for work to begin at the west Belfast site. Free article

FOUR consecutive days of front page opinion poll articles in the Irish Times have focused 26-County news coverage in the last week. The level of coverage, intent and subject matter of the questions leave the Times open to questions about the paper's impartiality and political agenda. Free article

FAMILIES from the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee, accompanied by representatives of Relatives for Justice and Sinn Féin West Belfast MP Gerry Adams MLA, met Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern in Belfast on Monday. Free article

BASQUE nationalist Iñaki de Juana Chaos voluntarily appeared in court in Belfast on Monday, 17 November, following the issuing of a European arrest warrant by the Spanish Government to the PSNI on Thursday, 13 November. The Spanish warrant states that, on 2 August, de Juana Chaos, a former ETA prisoner, gave a woman a letter to be read out in his name at a rally in San Sebastian in Euskal Herria (the Basque Country) which "praised terrorism". Free article

SINN FÉIN Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has expressed concern at the lack of progress on the part of the British and Irish governments on the motion on collusion passed unanimously by the Dáil on 10 July. He also raised concern over the uncertainty of future funding for the Justice for the Forgotten group. He was commenting after hearing replies from the Taoiseach in the Dáil on Tuesday. Free article

THE Irish Congress of Trade Unions has held a special delegate conference for members of trade unions to vote on whether to accept or reject the social partnership pay deal that would give workers a 3.5 per cent pay increase in the 26 Counties. Free article

IRISH CUSTOMERS pay the highest prices for electricity in the EU. We are also one of the most dependent states on imported energy resources and therefore the most vulnerable to international energy crises and price swings. These were the findings of two key reports on Ireland's energy industry released in the same week as the latest applications by the ESB and Bord Gáis for another round of price increases were considered by Commission on Energy Regulation. Free article

ON SUNDAY, 9 November, German police arrested a senior Rwandan government official at Frankfurt airport, on foot of a French extradition warrant dating back to 2006. Free article

THE weekend showing of the acclaimed film Hunger at the prestigious 4 Screens European Film Festival in Paris is an indication of the powerful effect the film is having on audiences across Europe, according to Bik McFarlane, who was at the festival. Free article

SINN FÉIN has recently implemented a transformation of the party's structures in universities across Cúige Ulaidh. This follows a summer-long 'think tank' by young Sinn Féin members who had recently passed through the party's college structures. These meetings resulted in the formation of a new University Officer Board. Free article