Say what you like about Silvio Berlusconi, but he looks after his friends. And the former Prime Minister's associates don't come much closer than Senator Marcello Dell'Utri, who helped to found the Forza Italia political party that carried Mr Berlusconi into office three times.

A clue to where Mothercare sees its future arrived yesterday, when the company appointed an internet-savvy chief executive.

Four more hedge fund executives have been arrested in the US authorities' war against insider trading.

When Anna Netrebko decided to dedicate a programme to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, the choice of Antonio Pappano as conductor was a crucial masterstroke.

Some collaborations are just meant to be. Bringing David Zinman and the OAE together made for the best kind of mutuality: Zinman’s acute ear and cleanness of execution; the orchestra’s arresting character.

"He was forthright and honest. He stood by his word. He was underrated in the House of Commons and worked hard. He got on with the job." That was how his Yorkshire whip, Alan McKay, summed up Alec Woodall. McKay shared digs in Balham with Woodall when Parliament was sitting, along with the MP for Pontefract Geoff Lofthouse (later Lord Lofthouse) and Edwin Wainwright, MP for Dearne Valley. And the overwhelming majority of his colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party would have agreed with him. "For someone from Alec Woodall's background or mine in the Yorkshire coalfield, parliament was a different world," Lord Lofthouse, who served as deputy speaker, told me. "Alec would make the detour in his car to Pontefract to collect me and drive me down to London. He showed me the ropes, as he did to many Yorkshire working-class MPs. I could always trust him for advice."

Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell showed off a new seven-inch tablet and said the computer maker is on track to bring in more than $60 billion in revenue this year.

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to pay $55m (£35m) to settle kickback allegations related to federal government contracts.

US Outlook: It is with some hesitation that I write about the battle for control of 3Par, a little California data storage company that is suddenly the hottest property in the tech industry. If Hewlett-Packard and Dell keep up the pace in their crazy bidding war, there could have been half a dozen more offers and counter-offers by the time you read this.

Dell has put the ball back in Hewlett-Packard's court in the computer manufacturing rivals' battle for control of 3Par, a California data storage company.