Labour’s vision

Ed Balls will continue to struggle so long as the opposition is perceived not to offer a real alternative to the coalition’s plans

Seven billion rich

Population growth should not be a cause for panic, but for celebration mixed with reflection on more active policies to deal with localised problems

• Analysis: Asia – Heirs and spares
• Walmart takes discrimination case to top court

Reason and fear in a flight to safety

The markets this week staged a dramatic flight to safety just as policymakers gathered in Washington for the IMF-World Bank annual meeting

Pirates in Berlin

The names of election-winning parties are generally assembled from yawn-inducing words so the rise of Germany’s Pirates party is worth celebrating

Brazilian feint

The inevitable rejection by the WTO of the governments ploy could lead to feigned disappointment, then unilateral protectionism followed by a trade war

Mr Gove’s emails

Access to information is a fundamental civic right that lies behind the long campaign for a British Freedom of Information Act and must be respected

Science in the dock

Italian manslaughter trial of six scientists and a public official – for failing to give quake warning – rightly provokes international outrage

Another setback to Afghan progress

Burhanuddin Rabbani offered a slight hope of bridging Afghanistan’s deep divisions. His death extinguishes that particular promise and threatens to intensify ethnic divisions

Fiddling in Rome

Baltic disharmony

British public debt

Greece’s tragedy is made at home

Britain vs the ECB

Policing the press

Obama’s political tax on millionaires

Battling against lifestyle diseases

A medium-term strategy for tax

The happy few