By the day’s end, the Dow was up 342.95 points, over 3 per cent, to finish at 11,215.92, its highest close in eight months. It was the fifth-largest point gain ever for the index.Investors were also soothed by better-than-expected inflation news released yesterday. The Consumer Price Index registered a 0.3 per cent rise in industry, [...]

While experts explained on the television networks that miscounts, missing ballots, problems of access to polling stations and other hitches were a feature of just about every election – not that they usually make a difference – viewers found it deeply troubling.”We were brought up thinking we lived in the world’s greatest democracy, and now [...]

There was no sign of the triumphalismthat marked the date a year ago. In the intervening 12 months, Germany has been engulfed by the second waveof neo-Nazi violence sinceunification.The event was designed to demonstrate the mainstream’s disgust with the thugs who have kicked three foreigners to death so far this year, and attacked a string [...]

of dead livestock that could contaminate not only the immediate environment, but also water resources. The likelihood of the outbreak of different diseases is quite high”The zud, as Mongolians term the natural disaster, began last summer with severe drought followed by heavy snowfalls and temperatures as low as minus 46C. This year’s rains have been [...]

Justly or not, his position was seen as “pandering” – and it is one of the few elements of his campaigning so far that has imprinted itself in voters’ minds.America’s legal system appeared, in its lower echelons at least, as ponderous, politicised and short on common sense. Only President Clinton, in tune – as so [...]

We could accept a stake lower than 30 per cent and we would consider taking a cash payment for some of our assets,” said a LVMH spokesman yesterday.Guinness and GrandMet still looked set last night to spurn a three-way merger of the drinks businesses and plough on with their own straight merger even though Mr [...]

The good news is that since there are no principles at stake, they should be able to horsetrade their way out of the current fix.People must be forced to save for old ageThere is something particularly irritating and holier than thou about the way Harriet Harman, social security minister, bangs on about having “inherited” a [...]

“His example should remain an inspiration to us now and in the future.”The Queen is doing everything she can to make India like her But so far it does not seem to be working.. A bus plunged into a ravine in rural central Quebec yesterday, killing more than 40 people, Quebec police said. The bus, [...]

GEC Alsthom has won a pounds 140m order to construct a 380 megawatt combined cycle power plant near Manchester for the US-owned group AES Partington.In the last week the go-ahead has been announced for 2,700MW of gas-fired capacity. This will reduce demand for coal by nearly 5 million tonnes a year – equivalent to the [...]

Spent five years at school struggling to learn a foreign language, and still have trouble ordering five beers and a croque monsieur? Instant translators now available on the Net promise a way out of monolingual hell. Cleared of murder but denied access to his wife and daughter, Lawrence embarks on an ocean-liner cruise which makes [...]