Too worried about their Christmas shopping, many would not have even noticed that Monday 1 December marked World AIDS Day. However, tens of thousands of activists and health workers rallied worldwide, while officials hailed new initiatives, new funding and a new pill to fight the disease that has infected 42 million people and killed 3.1 million in 2003, which kills more than 8,000 men, women and children every day. Free article

British Army and PSNI interference with forensic material has called into question all convictions based upon forensic evidence over the last 30 years. This revelation followed the discovery by a Belfast defence lawyer that suggests the PSNI routinely request government forensic scientists to doctor the evidence and further revelations that the British Army was deliberately allowed to contaminate material gathered as evidence in a recent case. Free article

7.30pm Friday 12 December 2003 - Teachers Club (room 2), 64 Parnell Sq. West The event will be a public presentation of the situation of the political prisoners currently being held in Spanish and French prisons as a consequence of the political conflict between the Basque Country and the Spanish State. Free article

Last Thursday, 4 December, a Sinn Féin delegation met with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Foreign Affairs minister Brian Cowen to discuss the Cory report into collusion. The delegation, led by Gerry Adams, included Martin McGuinness, Bairbre de Brún, Mary Lou McDonald, Mitchel McLaughlin and Dessie Macken. The meeting took place in Government Buildings in Dublin and lasted an hour and a half. Free article

Antrim Sinn Féin councillor Martin Meehan is furious that the PSNI took six weeks to warn him of a death threat against himself and party colleagues, choosing to inform him as he attended the South Antrim Assemby election count centre on 27 November. Free article

The family of the North Belfast teenager Peter McBride returned to court last week and won the right to challenge the British Army over its refusal to dismiss the two Scots Guards convicted of his 1992 killing. Free article

Sinn Féin South Down MLA Caitríona Ruane, marking international Human Rights Day on Wednesday, said it is time that governments throughout the world committed themselves to the highest international human rights standards. Free article

RTÉ's new series, The House of Love, gives viewers a weekly reminder that there is an unprecedented housing crisis in the 26 Counties. This game show is based on the premise that, because of the housing crisis, an ordinary semi detached house in a housing estate in the Midlands has now become a much sought after commodity. Free article

Speaking in Leinster House on Wednesday on the Social Welfare Bill, Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris contrasted the attitude of those in power towards the wealthy, with what he described as their "miserly" attitude to those living on social welfare and low wages. He contrasted the manner in which working-class communities were treated when it came to social welfare increases and grants, to the generosity displayed towards the rich in terms of tax breaks and the recent funding of the Punchestown Equestrian Centre. Free article