Goodbye Galliano

Dior’s star may have felt that his alleged gross anti-Semitism, captured on video, was provocative but his dismissal will hopefully have disabused him of any such erroneous idea

• Scandal leads Dior to fire Galliano
• Lex: Christian Dior

Why China fears the Arab spring

Although Beijing has retreated from some of its grosser intrusions into the personal space of its citizens, fundamental freedoms, especially the right to exercise political choice, continue to be denied

• Taiwan lets mainland invest in technology
• Editorial: Beijing-Taipei ties

Ireland’s winter of discontent

Ireland’s future depends on bigger forces than Dublin politics. But what the new leaders do will matter fro Europe

Washington heads for a shutdown

The US recovery is not yet secure. A bill that cuts spending gently at most in the remainder of this year, together with agreement on more sweeping tax and spending measures to come, would be the best outcome

The high cost of high-speed rail in UK

In an ideal world the London to Birmingham line might be a wonderful thing to have; at a time of tough choices on public spending it looks hard to justify

Greece’s struggles

George Papandreou’s job now is to persuade the silent majority of Greeks who do not benefit from insider privileges that they will ultimately gain from the reforms

Call time on GMT

We are only weeks away from the blissful moment when clocks spring forward and we let light into our lives – let us embrace British Summer Time for all the year

Britain and Libya

Whatever the short-term instability, the UK’s long-term interest lies in the advance of countries such as Libya and Egypt towards much greater political and economic openness

World will adapt to oil behaving badly

The vision thing

Time to muzzle Libya’s mad dog

Funding regulators

Skirting the boards

Apple bites digital hand that feeds it

The feeble monster

UK defence cuts

Spain rights saving banks’ wrongs

Battle of Wisconsin