News Item

The World Health Organization has released its list of the world's drunkest countries. Depending on what you were expecting you'll either be heartened or horrified to hear that Ireland came in 14th. The USA occupied the 57th spot.

Former Soviet territories and eastern Europe in general dominated the top ten:

1. Republic of Moldova
2. Czech Republic
3. Hungary
4. Russia
5. Estonia
6. Ukraine
7. Andorra
8. Slovenia
9. Belarus
10. Croatia

The standard for ranking was the average annual alcohol consumption in liters per capita. Ireland owned 14th place with an average of 14.4 liters, which means that every man, woman and child was down for nearly 4 gallons of hooch last year.