Former Lehman boss accused of trying to hide assets from creditors

Fears are growing that Nomura, the Japanese investment bank that bought large chunks of the failed Lehman Brothers bank last year, could face a downgrade in its credit rating in the coming weeks as the group continues to integrate large parts of the American firm into its business.

Bankruptcy of bank could have been better managed

It began with the banks. Then house prices began to tumble. In the months that followed, the shock waves spread, engulfing first high streets, then factories – and thousands of jobs. In this gripping account, Paul Vallely travels across Britain to meet the people whose lives – and livelihoods – have fallen victim to the domino effect that left a nation broken

Honesty proved an effective form of spin at Glenrothes and the momentum is with Labour

Adding a happy ending to Shakespeare's great love story is rather sweet. The tragedy is that the result is dull

One of the more worrying signs of global recession to have manifested itself over the past few months is the veritable collapse in the price of chartering a ship. Since Lehman Brothers was allowed to go under in September, the Baltic Dry Index, which tracks the cost of shipping dry cargo, has fallen by nearly 80 per cent, having already halved in the month before that. Shipping brokers say that it is now possible to charter a ship for less than its operating costs.

Sales of newly built homes in the US increased last month, an unexpected bright spot for investors searching for a bottom to the troubled housing market. In September, the number of purchases was running at an annualised rate of 464,000 – up 12,000 from the previous month and better than the 450,000 expected by Wall Street analysts.

Fears for the future of David Montgomery's media group Mecom have intensified, as the shares once again plunged despite the company rushing out a results statement in an attempt to calm investors.

The UK is mesmerised by the American presidential election. The result will affect all our futures. But is it too much already? Vast resources go into the coverage, leading to a fabricated, even forced, identification with the hyper-power; a euphoric mood is daily whipped up by fervently Atlanticist pundits. Question the United States and you are slammed for "anti-Americanism". There are no equivalent sneers for those who, for example, criticise Russia or India. It is as if this country is an extension of the US. It is defiantly, patently not. In fact, the more this drama unfolds, the more intensely aware we become of how different we are. The ocean between us is physical and cultural.

Yes, but what about the real economy? If I have been too optimistic about the effectiveness of the world's monetary authorities in restoring faith in the banking system, might I also have been too optimistic about the now-incipient economic downturn?

Got a social dilemma? Martha Arthur has the answer...

Now this is what we call naked shorting. A New York judge has dismissed a lawsuit in which a woman complained that a hip-hop magazine published without her consent a photo of her in a topless mermaid costume at a party thrown by the rap mogul Sean "P Diddy" Combs. The photo of three bare-breasted women, taken at the annual White Party in East Hampton in 2003, was captioned "Mermaids Gone Wild" and published in Vibe magazine alongside an article about Combs, below. One of the women was a hedge-fund manager, Maria Kristina Dominguez, who sued Vibe and Combs for $3m (£1.6m). However, the judge said the picture was related to newsworthy issues of public interest and concluded that Ms Dominguez had no right to privacy while she was cavorting topless. A lawyer for Ms Dominguez said she was "exploring her options". Sounds like she's hedging her bets.

There was a point, some time in mid-morning on Big Bang Day (Radio 4, Wednesday), when I started to feel that about the only thing that could justify this much coverage would be if the Large Hadron Collider really did generate a black hole that swallowed the Earth and snuffed out human existence for all eternity. Under those circumstances, they could even put up a good case for postponing The Archers.