World Crisis Online

The global box office success of The King's Speech has seen it take more than $230m (£142m) Continue reading the main story

Oscars 2011

• Winners and nominees in full
• Oscars 2011: Winner's diary
• Film Council basks in regal glory
• Oscars as it happened

British film The King's Speech has been crowned best picture at the Oscars, with star Colin Firth named best actor. (more…)

Sir Howard said advising the Libyan regime was an "error of judgement" Continue reading the main story

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• Money 'worry' on UK universities
• How Saif Gaddafi seduced the West
• UK and US united on Libya – Hague

The director of the London School of Economics has resigned over its links to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi. (more…)

Salman Taseer thought Pakistan's blasphemy laws were discriminatory Continue reading the main story

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• In pictures: Pakistan funeral
• Press condemns assassination
• Your reaction to the killing

Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was one of Pakistan's best-known political figures, but his death has revealed much more about this country than just its politics.  (more…)

Western leaders have criticised Pakistan's army for failing to move against militants in North Waziristan The Pakistan People's Party-led (PPP) coalition has lost two partners in the federal government – and now faces losing its majority. (more…)

Which country will be left holding all the cards? Over the past decade, the world has been divided into "deficit" countries and "surplus" countries. (more…)

Somalia has a thriving livestock sector – and it the country's biggest employer The main markets of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, are busy places, giving the impression that business is brisk. (more…)

Romeo and Juliet: Not so different from today's young adults Juliet, younger – though in some ways emotionally more mature – is still highly volatile. A stroppy teenager in other words. Though, interestingly, there is no word for teenager at this point in history, they did have a term for the trouble it caused in girls. (more…)

Punks were seen as subversive As a strategy, while it was surely unconscious, it was also brilliant. How better to neutralise revolution than to market it back to the revolutionaries. With sex no longer a taboo, naked flesh and simulated orgasm could be used to sell everything, from cars to flaky chocolate bars. (more…)

The wealthy would decorate churches For each early Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, there were many others who were more interested in securing immortality through the building of their own chapels or decoration of churches. Art lovers standing in awe in the Sistine chapel have long had to square their own circle of a church which produced such sublime art at the expense of the brutally poor. (more…)

Reading is a pleasure enjoyed on the move My defence should not be seen as the attempt merely to rescue a small building in a particular borough, or any other particular places threatened with closure. Rather it is a rallying call for the concept of free libraries. In our culture the library stands as tall and as significant as a parish church or the finest cathedral. It goes back to the times when ideas first began to circulate in the known world. I worry where wisdom will come from. (more…)

The Bible can still move even the unreligious Christmas is the very time when the clash of old and new worship becomes obvious. Churches are booked for months in advance by different charities, each keen to hold their fundraising carol concerts within beautiful settings. I shall be going to one that supports Saving Faces, the Facial Surgery Research Foundation. (more…)

Our role in environmental destruction has caused a sense of guilt The ecological situation has forever changed our relationship to nature. An unusually warm spring day cannot now be what it was for Chaucer and Wordsworth – a manifestation of the mystery and power of the non-human realm. Since our beginnings, the experience of nature involved an encounter with "the Other". The mountains and valleys reminded us that the planet was built by something other than our own hands, by a force greater than we could gather, long before we were born, and set to continue long after our extinction. We could go into nature and see that we were the playthings of forces that laid out the oceans and chiselled the mountains. (more…)

The Bushehr nuclear plant has been hit by repeated delays Continue reading the main story

Iran nuclear crisis

• Q&A: Nuclear issue
• Fuelling Bushehr
• Squeezing Iran: Oil and sanctions
• UN sanctions

Iran has confirmed it is having to remove nuclear fuel from the reactor at the Bushehr power plant, the latest in a series of delays to hit the project. (more…)

Veronica Lario accused her husband of consorting with "minors" in a letter to a newspaper It is hard to pick one event, one incident, which has led to this moment, there have been so many. But, for argument's sake, let us choose 28 April 2009. (more…)

The army made it clear early on it was not going to fire on protesters Continue reading the main story

Egypt's Revolution

• Little sympathy for Mubarak family
• Second chance?
• Dismantling state security
• Secret torture unveiled

The full picture of the exact role played by the Egyptian army in forcing President Hosni Mubarak to step down has yet to emerge. (more…)

Micheal Martin staged a leadership bid last week, helping to de-throne Brian Cowen Continue reading the main story

Irish crisis

• Irish coalition draws to a close
• Ireland's Kenny faces crucial 30 days
• SF President Adams wins Dail seat
• Irish bail-out bill set to pass

The Irish Republic's governing party has announced a new leader, days after Prime Minister Brian Cowen resigned his party post amid a long-running political and economic crisis. (more…)

Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore has said Ireland would be "screwed" by Fine Gael's fiscal measures.

• However, nothing has come close to the infamous outburst in the last Irish Parliament when the Green Party's Paul Gogarty twice used the f-word in a stream of abuse aimed at a Labour backbencher.
• Although he immediately withdrew the comment and apologised, the remark went global on Youtube, and he became known as the Green who saw red and turned the air blue.
• Mr Gogarty is running again in the Dublin Mid West constituency.
• His election campaign leaflet lists his political talents, including the fact that "I have always spoken my mind". No-one could argue with that.

Friday 18 February

• An occupational hazard for TV reporters covering elections is publicity-seeking politicians creeping up on you when you are not looking.
• The Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and party colleague Arthur Morgan could not stop smiling when they saw the BBC cameras in Dundalk.

The Sinn Fein president spots an opportunity to appear before the cameras

• The point I was trying to make, before being caught in a Sinn Fein sandwich, was that even though Gerry Adams may top the poll in County Louth, it is the overall performance of his party that matters most.
• In the last Irish election in 2007, Sinn Fein won only four of the 166 seats in the Dublin parliament. They are expected to do better in next week's poll, but how much better?
• Dr Theresa Reidy, an elections expert based at University College Cork, is predicting a Sinn Fein surge. "They could pick up maybe 12, and on an excellent day, I think 14 is about the outside of what they can take," she says. Watch out for a lot more grinning Sinn Fein candidates, and beards, on TV.

Thursday 17 February

• One of the most striking aspects of the Irish election campaign is the attempt to hide the name of one of the main parties, Fianna Fail, by some of the party's own candidates. Take a look at the photograph above and spot the party name. You may need a magnifying glass. It is buried in small type in the bottom right-hand corner.

Fianna Fail candidates are hoping to succeed because of personal standing

• Fianna Fail was in charge when the Irish economy went bust, and the party brand has been badly tarnished. In the last election it won 42% of the vote; the latest poll suggests support is down to 12%. It is quite a crash.

• Candidates are hoping their personal standing over-rides their party's standing. But Fianna Fail have conceded that they are facing losses at the polls and are not even running enough candidates to win an overall majority.
• What is the difference between Fianna Fail and their election rivals Fine Gael? The best answer of the campaign so far came from RTE broadcaster Pat Kenny: "Just watch the Michael Collins movie."

Wednesday 16 February

• A record number of independents are contesting the Irish election, and one candidate in Co Louth is causing a stink with his campaign posters.
• The election slogan of Dundalk businessman Fred Matthews is "No More Bull****". The slogan is plastered over the Louth countryside and is also carried on his website, but without any clear explanation. Presumably, it is something to do with his agriculture policy.

Independent businessman Fred Matthews has an attention-grabbing slogan in Co Louth

• The number of independents – 202 – is more than a third of the total number of candidates. This suggests a growing disenchantment with the political establishment, since Ireland's economy went from boom to bust. However, the latest opinion poll suggests the next government will be led by one of the established parties, Fine Gael.

• The state of the parties, according to the Irish Independent poll, is: Fine Gael 38%, Labour 23%, Independents 16%, Fianna Fail 12%, Sinn Fein 10%, Greens 1%.
• The poll is good news for Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who took time out of the campaign to fly to Berlin on Monday to discuss Ireland's economic prospects with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They later shook hands and posed for the cameras.
• Angela and Enda are old friends, with their parties both being members of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP). Leaders sit in alphabetical order at EPP meetings and, with their surnames being close to each other, Kenny and Merkel have got to know each other well over the years. They could soon be meeting at top-level European summits. But if Germany succeeds in forcing Ireland to raise its low corporation tax rate, it could be the "enda of a beautiful relationship".

Tuesday 15 February

• One of the most bizarre soundbites of the election campaign has led to an apology from Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin. The former Irish foreign minister adopted a Chinese accent to try to make a political point. Mr Martin recalled a trade mission to China and said: "Whenever I met Chinese ministers or officials… they kept on saying to me, [adopts foreign-sounding accent] you Irish, very good at software."

The Sinn Fein president (R) was "arguably the winner of the debate"

• Later, he admitted he had made a comment "in a manner which I shouldn't have" and added: "If anyone was in any way offended I, of course, apologise."
• The first live TV debate involving the five party leaders was hot and heavy inside the RTE studio on Monday night, but not outside. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams came out of the studio smiling and handed a small bunch of Valentine's Day flowers to a waiting journalist.
• Mr Adams was arguably the winner of the debate, but Sinn Fein is unlikely to win enough seats to be part of the next government. Rather than being in the next cabinet, he will only be able to wield flower power.

Monday 14 February

• There is no escape from the Irish election, even at an international rugby match in Dublin. Fine Gael – the party expected to top the poll in next week's election – sent an army of young volunteers to tackle fans arriving at Sunday's Ireland-France Six Nations game. It all went well, apart from some wasted canvassing of inebriated Frenchmen who faked Irish accents and pretended to be interested in the election.

Rugby fans were tackled by an army of young canvassers

• Not dropping the ball will be the name of the game in tonight's first five-way TV election debate involving the party leaders. Much attention will focus on Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams who has previously mishandled some economic questions.

• It seems some Irish people have had enough of the election already. One south Dublin house has pinned a sign to its front door: "No canvassers here, for health and safety reasons. My health – your safety."

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen called early elections more than a year before his term was due to expire because of a political crisis triggered by last November's bail-out by the IMF and EU worth 85bn euros ($113bn; £72bn). (more…)

Gerry Adams and Micheal Martin took part in the debate Continue reading the main story

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• Irish election diary

The leaders of the main Irish political parties have taken part in the first five-way debate of the 2011 general election campaign. (more…)

Brian Cowen is expected to dissolve parliament on Tuesday Continue reading the main story

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• Cowen set to dissolve parliament
• Irish PM party chooses new leader
• Fighting for survival

A crucial finance bill has been passed by the Republic of Ireland's upper house, the senate. (more…)

Fidel Castro has outlasted 10 US presidents 1898: US defeats Spain, which gives up all claims to Cuba and cedes it to the US. (more…)