Last Sunday at a speaking engagement down in Bath I sat next to a Swiss guy who wrote trading algorithms and software for Geneva based hedge funds. It was that sort of dinner – a place where the mathematically gifted fund managers exchange ideas and theories with academics on how to predict market movements.

International envoy Kofi Annan says world powers share a “profound concern” that Syria's violence is spiraling into civil war but have pledged to deploy 300 truce monitors there by the end of the month.

Skoda has introduced a new high-performance version of the Fabia. The vRS has a 1.4 litre petrol engine fitted with both an engine-driven supercharger and an exhaust-driven turbocharger, a combination that is good for some 180 horsepower. That's enough to propel the vRS, in either hatchback or estate form, to 100km/h (62mph) in just 7.3 seconds. VW's second-generation seven-speed DSG gearbox is fitted, and there are a variety of cosmetic tweaks that distinguish the vRS from other Fabias.

The baccalaureate isn't just for gifted or foreign pupils. Average students are signing up, too

Davis Cup: Swiss clay can be a great leveller but the Federer factor remains

Founder of the Taizé community

Sir: I cannot be the only person on the planet who agrees with Bill Clinton that most of his activities don't constitute sexual relations. In common with all the people I met and went out with in the late Fifties and early Sixties, I believed there was something immoral (certainly for a woman) in having sex with a near-stranger, but heavy petting was perfectly permissible and a man would certainly not think you were loose if that was all you were prepared to do!

A SPECIAL flight took relatives of the 229 dead last night to the scene of the disaster, where they were preparing to carry out the grim task of identifying the remains.

THE Fiat Berlinetta that drove Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, their deaths in 1945 goes on auction in Geneva today after nearly half a century standing in a Swiss garage.

Sir: I am surprised never to have seen in any British media what seems to me the best reason not to vote for John Major.

Illustration by Edward Sorel Text by Nancy Caldwell Sorel Next week: Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt

SWIMMING

Lester Piggott was among the first to pay tribute to Boutin, who had provided him with a unique Ascot Gold Cup treble on Sagaro. "It is very, very sad. We were friends for years, both socially and professionally," he said. "I had the greatest respect for him as a trainer and he was a very nice man. I rode so many good horses like Sagaro and Nonoalco for him over the years.