Without such prompt and decisive action, the bloodbath forecast for Benghazi could well have come to pass. The rebel movement might have been crushed even before it had had a chance to coalesce. There is no latitude for "what ifs" here. As time has p...

For years we have been told that moderate drinking is good for us, on account of its beneficial effect on the heart. Two to three drinks a day for a man and one to two for a woman reduced the risk of a heart attack. Now one of the largest studies of ...

Quite right too – there isn't a department store on earth with a gift list that could trump the trousseau she's about to acquire. The charity means more to her than any new linens or 36-piece cutlery set ever could, because the future Queen was, alle...

Fragmentation would be disastrous The Prime Minister has promised to make "all necessary changes" to the Health and Social Care Bill ("Minister; tell us your fears about NHS reforms – but we might not listen", 7 April). As a first step he has ide...

For now, the big surprise is that Spain has managed to escape the turmoil – the domino that did not fall. The malign magic of "contagion" ought to have led inexorably to a Spanish rescue deal. But for now, the markets seem to have given Spain the ben...

The ocean tumbled by for Mr Smith in a66-day voyage which proved that for some senior citizens tomorrow never comes. Mr Sendak has abandoned his wolf-suited young hero Max for a porcine protagonist called Bumble-Ardy, but his world is as fantasticall...

Strike action over bad behaviour is rare. The last major case centred on the Ridings School in Calderdale in 1996 when teachers demanded that 60 unruly pupils should be excluded from the school. Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, was called in...