Economic Life: There are other European candidates to head the IMF, though for obvious reasons Gordon Brown is not one

Buddhist economist Sulak Sivaraksa has advice for Western capitalist societies. Sholto Byrnes slows down and listens

Economic View

Outlook The idea that Gordon Brown should be the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund is, despite the predictable discomfort of assorted right-wingers, not so outlandish. This is a body that professes its mission to be "fostering global growth and economic stability", two objectives in which the former Prime Minister, whatever the arguments about his record, is undeniably steeped.

The spiralling cost of staple foods is driving the world's poorest areas into "the danger zone", the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, said yesterday.

Voters will choose between a former army officer who has vowed to redistribute the nation's wealth and the daughter of the incarcerated ex-president Alberto Fujimori when they vote for a new leader in a June run-off election, official results released yesterday showed.

It's a vast region whose forests are being cut down at a rate faster than those of Amazonia

A leftist former military officer who promises to favour the poor by redistributing Peru's mineral wealth is expected to win a presidential election but fall far short of the outright majority needed to avoid a run-off.

Dr Watson is not quite a household name, but he could be Britain's most widely distinguished scientist

Money makes the world gather round

This sequence of photos show the final moments of a beach in Odaka, northeastern Japan, before it is hit by the waves of the devastating tsunami on March 11.

The trailblazers of the first dotcom boom made millions. Hoping to join their ranks was Andrew Marshall – but then the bubble burst. Ten years later, as the new web giants are valued at billions, he argues that it is his generation's failures that have made it all possible

Sixteen countries including Angola, Kosovo, Bosnia and Vietnam are to lose British aid, Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, will announce tomorrow.

Outlook In theory, it is the business of no one other than his nearest and dearest why exactly Steve Jobs has had to take a second leave of absence from Apple – or what his prognosis now is. In practice, Apple investors will want more information than the skimpy announcement that the technology giant yesterday offered. If it refuses to provide an update, Apple is not being fair to its shareholders.