COLORADO, Wyoming and New Mexico struggled against the tail end of storms on New Year’s Eve that left more westerly states recovering from a wintertime onslaught of snow, rain and bitter wind.

FIFTEEN people have died after a bus packed with 77 schoolgirls was swept off a road by floods in southern Egypt.

THE tiny Baltic state of Estonia is preparing to celebrate the New Year by becoming the first former Soviet republic to adopt the euro.

ANYONE applying for a driving licence in Britain from July will be required to answer a question regarding organ donation under a scheme being brought in by the Government.

CHINA will crack down on what it called illegal internet telephone providers, according to a circular from the Chinese government that could potentially affect Internet calling service Skype.

THE Old West outlaw Billy the Kid won’t be receiving a pardon, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has said.

ESTATE agents Savills have pointed out that although the many merits of the Government’s changes to the penal stamp duty regime have been widely commended following the budget announcement, a thought must be spared for those potential first-time buyers who have now been brought into the net.

PRE-tax profits at one of the west of Ireland’s largest civil engineering firms decreased by 8% in 2009 to €641,782 in spite of an increase in revenues.

THE ISEQ index of Irish shares managed to buck the trend yesterday, by posting a marginal daily gain, but still finished 2010 down 3% on the prior year, overall.

London: New figures from lender Nationwide show that British house prices rose by 0.4% in December, compared with November, after a two-month consecutive fall — bringing the average price of a house in Britain to €189,000.

Dublin: Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith, yesterday confirmed payment of a further €100m to farmers by way of early payment of the final instalment of 20% of the grant aid due to farmers under the Farm Waste Management Scheme.

London: The majority of people working in Britain’s financial services industry are happy to stay in Britain, according to a survey by the eFinancialCareers.com website, despite fears a clampdown on pay may force top performers overseas.

BRIAN Cowen is correct in saying that the news of Bertie Ahern’s retirement is indeed the end of an era.

WITH a general election looming in the New Year, is it not time that we, the electorate, are finally given the opportunity to participate in a truly democratic election.

I REFER to the media headlines this week whereby the Minister of State for Public Service has signalled the potential for a new round of redundancy packages.

WHILE visiting Santa’s grotto with my two children just before Christmas I found Mr Claus quite unsettled. Upon enquiry, it seemed Mr Claus’s distress was caused by Oliver Moore’s letter to him (December 23).

DESPITE the recent Arctic weather conditions, hare coursing continued over the festive season.

CLONLIFFE HARRIERS, Ireland’s oldest Athletic Club will celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2011.

NORMALLY anyone using the National Archives is looking for specific information, but when the State Papers are released to journalists each year, it is a different matter. Most do not know what they are looking for; they just plough through the files looking for anything of likely interest.

As we begin the new year, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has announced that he is quitting politics at the end of the current Dáil term. In a sense, it marks the end of an era, and it would be nice to be able to think that we could now put all of the heartache and the pain of the past few years behind us, but that is not realistic.

In the past couple of years, more than 1,000 people a month have gone into business for themselves. In the process, they have exhibited the kind of entrepreneurial drive and fighting spirit that will be necessary to drag this country out of our current malaise.

Football might be his living but it’s not his whole life. The gifted midfielder tells Liam Mackey about his passion for music, literature, history and the game he loves, as well as addressing his controversial exile from the Irish team

THE three days at Leopardstown this week almost renewed one’s faith in this great game of ours.

Talking About Detective Fiction

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

Leading Lights: People Who’ve Inspired Me

The Cost of Living

Laleh Khadivi

RHINO’S Great Big Itch! by Natalie Chivers (Little Tiger €7.10). An itch inside the ear is an annoying thing to deal with, but for a rhino with four heavy legs and no fingers to probe the irritant, it is extra frustrating.

NOWADAYS more than ever before we need comfort food. So I’m going to devote my first column of the year to simple homely dishes guaranteed to warm and cheer the family when they traipse in tired and hungry from school or after a long day’s work.

SURREAL celebrity encounters are a professional hazard in the pop industry but, even by the usual standards, Elisabeth “Lissie” Maurus has some bizarre stories to share.

FROM filmmaking to fashion design and from sport to modelling, they are the hottest talents of the next generation, and some of our greatest hopes for the future.

SWINE flu infection rates are on the increase with 34 people hospitalised for treatment of the virus, including five in intensive care since the onset of the annual winter flu season.

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s ambitions of becoming president have been torpedoed by a cross-society attack on his legacy and his ambitions.

THE number of children admitted to hospital because of asthma has fallen.

BERTIE AHERN and Éamon de Valera share one incredible accomplishment — winning three successive elections for Fianna Fáil.

FORMER Fianna Fáil Justice Minister John O’Donoghue has admitted his party has been “spooked” by refusal of a number of high-profile members not to run in the next general election.

IT was fitting that Bertie Ahern’s confused political career should end at a gathering of the O’Donovan Rossa Fianna Fáil cumann — whose mythical past and fundraising techniques helped define him.

A selection of quotes from the former taoiseach, compiled by Political Correspondent Conor Ryan

WATER supply is continuing to improve around the country, according to the National Severe Weather Co-ordination Committee.

FOR the fifth year in a row, there has been a decline in the number of people killed on the country’s roads.

HSE child safety experts have been drafted in by prison bosses to address “serious child protection issues” at Dóchas women’s prison.

MENTAL health practitioners are setting up a “database of safe psychiatrists” for people seeking therapeutic care rather than the mainstream model of medication and hospitalisation.

A recent survey indicated Ireland has a high proportion of people willing to take the entrepreneurial plunge by launching their own business, writes John Daly

The sector is under great pressure but diversifying is an option, finds John Hearne

GOVERNMENT officials regarded Dublin Corporation’s behaviour over the development of Wood Quay as “ridiculous” and “paranoid”.

PAID maternity leave was a luxury the country could not afford — even if the proposal did make the then single minister for labour popular with the ladies.

ANTI-IRISH sentiment in 1970s Britain made its way to the Taoiseach’s office in letters written by British citizens disgruntled at the number of Irish immigrants arriving to work there.

THE reluctance of the 1980 government to take in more Vietnamese refugees is apparent in documents that show ministers repeatedly stalled on committing to open the country’s doors a second time.

THE H Block protest began in 1976 when the British decided to phase out special category status, which accorded virtual prisoner of war status to Republican prisoners.

THE politics of whiskey production perplexed several government departments in 1979 and 1980, as they struggled for a legal definition of Irish Whiskey that would not heighten tensions over Northern Ireland.

LEAKS to journalists irked Taoiseach Charles Haughey but his officials warned him there was little if anything that could be done about them.

FANS anticipating a leisurely New Year’s Day amble to Thomond Park for this evening’s Magners League clash between Munster and Ulster should consider quickening their step.

THE pain of defeat, particularly to old foes, can stay with a player for a long time and Munster’s Denis Hurley is no exception.

IN a side captained by Shane Jennings, the return of Kevin McLaughlin is one of the main talking points of Joe Schmidt’s selection for Leinster’s Magners League clash with Connacht at the RDS today (5.30pm).

Former Monaghan and Meath boss Colm Coyle discusses ‘the madness’ of life as an inter-county manager with John Fogarty

GIFT OF DGAB is the nap choice to give us a flying start to the weekend by landing the opening New Year Maiden Hurdle at Fairyhouse this afternoon.

PAUL Nicholls has revealed two of his leading John Smith’s Grand National fancies have had breathing operations.

We’ve had a bit of an up and down week — highlighted by the contrasting fortunes of Bostons Angel in the Grade 1 Fort Leney Novices’ Chase and Saludos in the Grade 1 Bord Na Mona With Nature Novice Chase at Leopardstown earlier in the week.

BOTH men’s SuperLeague sides in Cork will be back in action over the weekend after Thursday night’s derby game saw UCC Demons blow away Bord Gais Neptune with little difficulty.

THERE was a thrilling finish to the North Cork Cup at Millstreet, Co. Cork yesterday when Party Jay Cee came racing through to narrowly take the opening turn against Millbridge Eoin and capture the prize.

LIVERPOOL manager Roy Hodgson has apologised for his perceived criticism of fans but has told supporters he will not resign over poor performances.

EMBATTLED Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier yesterday revealed he is willing to give Stephen Ireland and Richard Dunne a chance to revive their Aston Villa careers.

MANCHESTER UNITED and England star Wayne Rooney has already started planning for life as a manager.

ALEX FERGUSON has hailed the five-team scrap for this season’s title “the dream league”.

CHELSEA coach Paul Clement insists the club’s players are not superhuman and that it is perfectly normal for their miserable recent run to have taken its toll.

BRIAN KIDD has pleaded for understanding as Italian Mario Balotelli tries to combat the destructive power of homesickness.

DEFIANT Arsene Wenger maintains the Barclays Premier League title is “Arsenal’s to win” despite blowing the chance to end 2011 level on points with leaders Manchester United.

HARRY REDKNAPP has revealed Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy wants him to splash the cash in the January transfer window.

CELTIC new boy Freddie Ljungberg insists he is fit and ready to return to the form which made him a star at Arsenal.

WOLVES manager Mick McCarthy believes his team’s Premier League survival prospects will not be defined by spending in the January transfer window.

AVRAM GRANT is still fuming over West Ham’s disallowed winner at Wolves as the sides prepare for today’s relegation six-pointer at Upton Park.

SYDNEY’S Harbour Bridge exploded in a spectacular blaze of New Year fireworks yesterday as people around the globe began welcoming 2011 with a glittering array of parties.

DETECTIVES were last night granted more time to continue questioning Joanna Yeates’s landlord on suspicion of her murder.

MILITARY aircraft dropped supplies to towns cut off by floods in northeastern Australia, as the prime minister promised new assistance yesterday to the 200,000 people affected by waters covering an area larger than France and Germany combined.

RUSSIAN spy Anna Chapman has revealed some secrets in her first TV interview: She has a passion for shooting and wants a lion cub as a pet — though she remained coy on the job that made her an international tabloid star.

THE Pope has used his New Year message to demand the protection of religious freedom claiming Christians are the religious group which suffers most from persecution on account of its faith.

A LAWYER for jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky yesterday appealed his sentence of six more years in prison, a punishment seen as payback for challenging Vladimir Putin’s power and which was widely condemned in the West.

THE number of people in critical care with confirmed or suspected flu in England has risen to 738.

NINTENDO said 3D games on its highly-anticipated, handheld console could harm the eyesight of children aged six or younger, warning of possible ill effects from a technology on which many companies are betting big.

A US missile strike killed eight alleged militants in northwest Pakistan yesterday on the final day of a year that has seen a major escalation in drone attacks targeting insurgents flowing into neighbouring Afghanistan.

BRAZILIAN President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva turned down an extradition demand for an Italian ex-militant, Cesare Battisti, considered a “terrorist” by Rome for murders committed in the 1970s.

A car exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as worshippers emerged from a New Year’s Mass in the Egyptian city of Alexandria early today, killing at least 21 people.