Not just the tone, but actual phrases, seemed eerily reminiscent of the former US President George Bush as he waged his "war on terror" and of our former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as he warned with false certainty about the threat from Iraq. There...

The Social Democratic Party's choice of candidate, the former Finance Minister, Peer Steinbrück, is seen as presenting less of a threat to Ms Merkel than the former Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, would have done, had he thrown his hat in...

Etiquette is essentially a veneer, a gloss of cosmetic excellence. It is a subject that prompts tittering on two counts: some of us titter at other people's faux pas, and some of us titter at the very idea of such finishing-school flummery.I am put i...

There will be those who will feel that the bloodbath in the Algerian desert is justification enough for Britain to be backing the French military intervention in Mali. This is, we have been told, al-Qa'ida Mark III. First was Osama bin Laden's origin...

As for Michael Ayers, the Architect of the Capitol who has been in charge of inauguration planning for a year now, he is praying that tomorrow's big day won't be thrown into turmoil by a last-minute fall of snow. But no need to worry. No white stuff ...

They could hardly have been more wrong, it turns out. Indeed, the number of children admitted to hospital with severe asthma plummeted in the year after the ban was introduced, according to researchers at London's Imperial College. Even hardened nic...

I hold the theory that eventually only shoe shops will remain, because it is simply less trouble to try shoes on, even in the face of a bored 19-year-old who can proffer either the right size or the right colour, but not the combination of both. The ...

Tomorrow is a doubly good news day for the tabloids. Not only do they get to cover their front pages with their favourite war hero, as the media blackout over his latest tour of duty is lifted, the hero himself has also confessed to being an avid rea...

He could not have been farther away, as foreign policy soared to the top of the political agenda; and, quite a lot of the time, his political mind could not be more removed from the hyperactivity and multi-layered calculations of ambitious senior min...

But in the past 10 days, Mali has leap-frogged to the top of the news bulletins and the list of crises facing Western governments. Why?According to Paris, and now London, northern Mali threatens to become a Taliban state on Europe’s doorstep. A loose...

Has anyone noticed the lack of media interest in war rape in Syria? How many people are aware that rape is a widespread and systematic practice in Syria? Are such heinous sex acts not newsworthy enough? Or is war rape unreported because war rape in S...

Our peerless Science Editor, Steve Connor, reported the discovery that “human DNA can naturally wrap itself into a different shape – a quadruple helix – in a breakthrough that could point the way to new cancer treatments”. Apparently the quadruple DN...

That doesn't stop me trying, however, and I have discovered that the art of pub singing is less about reaching the notes, more about remembering the words. And thankfully I have a good memory. I have even been committed to vinyl: a few years ago, a f...

 Some older readers may remember The Big Freeze of '63. December 1962 began with the last Great Smog before the Clean Air Act came into effect. As if that wasn't bad enough, a cold easterly wind blew in from Scandinavia on the 22nd and didn't let up ...

Not that you'd ever imagine that from our panicky reaction. Each year, the same relatively light dusting of snow elicits the same response: panic-buying in shops, shutdowns of railway lines and airports and that old staple, "traffic chaos" on iced-u...

Sure, class and race meant some had more than others. But when caught in such a grisly drama, all such distinctions must dissolve, burn off. Grief too will be shared between high and low as families mourn. They are united in agony and turmoil. Ours i...

She is spot on. Even though British culture is revered across the world; even though it provides jobs, inspiration and joy to millions in the UK, you will never catch a politician actually attending an arts event. I have never bumped into an MP, let ...

There was some confusion over how long rates would be kept at zero, given differing comments from members of the Federal Open Market Committee. This was made clearer in the recently published minutes of its  meeting of December  11-12 at which voting...

Writing in the New York Times, David Rothkopf argues that it's not just Congress that Obama has been lousy at managing, it's the Oval Office too: "The administration has not done a good job of delegating to and empowering cabinet officials. Nor does ...

Last week, at Perth airport, Hurley and Shane Warne were approached by a TV reporter, who asked them some fairly polite questions about the previous day's cricket match. Warne tactfully kept his mouth shut, but Hurley walked straight into the report...

There needs to be a new model for the high street which doesn't compete with online shopping and out-of-town superstores, but offers something completely different. Pedestrianisation killed off shopping too – old people who enjoy daily shopping as a ...

The tower beside the Thames at Vauxhall, known as 1 St George's Wharf, has been a preoccupation of mine since it first nudged above the skyline. It was almost a relief when its tapering crown appeared – proof that it would not be rising higher. At ni...

It was on my first day in Almaty that I became aware of the Kazakh love for horsemeat. Wandering around the city that is supposed to have first brought apples to the world I came across The Green Bazaar, a large covered market. Rather helpfully, the...

The essence of the latest Met Office view is that warming is continuing, though at a variable and currently reduced pace. Such variation is to be expected given the interactions between the underlying trend and the natural fluctuations in weather an...

"Our car industry? God, she was a beauty, old boy. Used to go like the clappers. Wonderful names there were. Allard and Alvis, Hillman and Humber, Jensen and Jowett, Lanchester and Lagonda, Swallow and Sunbeam, and, of course, dear old Armstrong Sid...