The language in this debate is a proxy for anti-immigration sentiments

The biggest threat to the world economy isn't the sub-prime crisis. Nor is it the credit crunch or the US recession. It's food.

BP is the latest company targeted by Chinese sovereign wealth funds that are investing in natural resources around the world. And, unlike other countries, Britain is welcoming such investors with open arms. Stephen Foley reports

Middle-class neurosis is being exploited to protect an archaic form of agriculture

Virgin Atlantic's president Sir Richard Branson has warned that a treaty liberalising air travel between America and Europe will be "ripped up" unless the US government allows American carriers to be taken over by foreign rivals.

Peter Mandelson, the European Union trade commissioner, has warned about the consequences if the Doha round of world trade talks were to fail this year.

I don't care how people feel about me. I do expect them to treat me with minimal courtesy

At the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday, political and business leaders took up the debate over whether a code of conduct should be imposed on sovereign wealth funds (SWFs).

Britain attacked EU proposals to impose carbon tariffs on the US, China and other major importers as "trade barriers" yesterday.

It appeared for a while that Gordon Brown had lost his nerve on Europe. In the negotiations on the Lisbon treaty he seemed to be concerned only with red lines and opt-outs. Then there was the debacle of his turning up to sign the document three hours late, when all Europe's other leaders had departed. The Prime Minister seemed gripped by frightened equivocation designed to pander to Eurosceptic newspapers and draw the sting of the Conservatives' campaign to secure a referendum on the treaty.

Gordon Brown said yesterday that it would be a mistake to question Britain's EU membership at a time of global economic problems.

The government of Singapore has built up a 3 per cent stake in British Land, the FTSE 100 property group that has seen its market value dive with the rest of the UK property sector.

Andy Murray is in a hurry. The new season is less than a week old but the 19-year-old Scot is already through to his first final of the campaign after sweeping aside Nikolai Davydenko, the world No 3, at the Qatar Open yesterday.

Lee Sinnott played in the Cup final at 18, but his Watford side lost out to Everton. Now manager of Farsley Celtic, he tells Phil Shaw why meeting the MK Dons is a chance to make amends