Balanchine discovered in Tchaikovsky, his fellow Petersburger, romance and imperial elegance entwined - or at least following fast on one another. But in this odd, late ballet, the choreographer kept them ...

A loud roar of approval breaks out across the cavernous, crisp packet-littered trading floor in London's Canary Wharf, as robust US employment figures flash past the screens, causing a palpable ripple ...

From Mr Arthur J. Bauernfeind.

Strewn across modern day Spain are tens of thousands of half-built properties, the looming ruins of a debt-fuelled construction bubble that now seems to belong to a different world.

A Syrian-born man has been arrested on charges of spying on Syrian protesters in the US on behalf of the government in Damascus, the justice department announced.

The Rare FindSpotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else, By George Anders Penguin Portfolio, $26.95/£14.99

Israelis and Palestinians celebrated a prisoner exchange deal on Wednesday, while their leaders hoped the agreement would boost their popular support.

TPG Capital is backing M&G, an Italian engineering and chemicals company, in a joint venture to produce what it says is a world breakthrough in second-generation bioethanol, in which agricultural waste ...

A quarter of US millionaires pay lower taxes than some middle-class households, congressional researchers said, in a report that is bound to fuel the political battle over the taxation of the wealthiest ...

Plans to cut the number of Scottish Westminster MPs from 59 to 52 at the next general election could prove a dilemma for the coalition government.

Walmart, the world's largest retailer by revenues, said on Wednesday that the company produced its first quarter of rising US sales in more than two years, offering hope to investors that efforts to revive ...

A "sham" transaction at the heart of a $6.5bn (£4.1bn) legal claim by Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch exiled in London, against Roman Abramovich was given the go-ahead by a compliance officer ...

Paul Burstow, the social care minister, was repeatedly warned last year about the problems at Southern Cross before it went bankrupt but refused requests to meet the care home company's chief executive ...

Congratulations, Jeremy Heywood. You've got Britain's best public sector job. As head of the civil service, you'll have all the fun of being prime minister - but without losing your private life. You're ...

Barclays (NYSE:BCS - News) was in focus as banks helped lift the FTSE 100 to a two-month high.

The euro extended its gains on Wednesday, undaunted by Slovakia's "no" vote on the extension to the eurozone bail-out fund and ratings downgrades to some of the region's banks.

One of the European Union's greatest achievements has been to scrap non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services. But the "single market" remains incomplete and faces new threats. The European ...

The highly anticipated third-quarter earnings season got under way with a whimper when Alcoa (NYSE:AA - News)'s shares sank in the wake of its disappointing results.

A trust set up by Liam Fox to help Sri Lanka's development appears to have achieved nothing other than to pay for the MP's trips to the country, one of his allies has told the Financial Times.

Activism by prominent shareholders is on the rise in the US, as beaten-down share prices and a renewed focus on ­streamlining companies give investors an opportunity to push for change at large ­companies....

Shares in Lamprell slumped to a 13-month low as the oil and gas support services company warned of a $14.3m overspend on three of its boat contracts.

Global grain production is growing as farmers chase high prices, according to US government figures, suggesting food inflation pressures may abate in the months to come.

Codelco, the Chilean state-owned copper producer, plans to exercise an option to buy 49 per cent of some of Anglo American's copper assets in Chile, and has lined up $6.75bn in financing to do so.

Wednesday 20.30 BST. After a cautious start, trading has turned broadly positive as investors seek to extend the strong risk asset rally of the past week.

A mistake by a tax official in settling a long-running tax dispute with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - News) concerned £5m-£8m of uncollected interest, MPs heard on Wednesday.

Rockhopper Exploration rose 10.9 per cent to 212p after it received expressions of interest from companies looking to co-invest in its $2bn Sea Lion project.

The Burmese government has released a significant number of political prisoners in the latest sign that reformers have seized the initiative. On Wednesday, between 100 and 300 political prisoners were ...

European policymakers are moving towards a plan that would enable the eurozone's €440bn rescue fund to insure investors against some losses on government bonds, arguing it presents the fewest legal and ...

Almost a month after from the Federal Reserve's launch of "Operation Twist", the latest emergency monetary easing aimed at reviving the US economy, and hopes of a big boost for homeowners have ...

Barclays (NYSE:BCS - News) was in focus as banks helped lift the FTSE 100 to a two-month high.

One newcomer to the London Stock Exchange goes to the rescue of another. How frightfully decent. There is talk that commodities trader-cum-miner Glencore, which in May pulled off the year's most hyped ...

Meg Whitman's career at Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ - News) will be a series of hard decisions. The first will be whether to spin off the personal computer business, which generates a quarter of HP's revenues and ...

The script calls for investors to pour derision on Bill Gross. It is hard to be quite so manifestly wrong as he has been. The facts speak for themselves; early this year he made a big song and dance about ...

BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP - News) took a first step towards approving the expansion of its Olympic Dam copper mine - one of the company's largest and most expensive projects globally - after winning environmental ...

In a city routinely gridlocked over how to cut spending, no one seemed to notice in Washington this week when Hillary Clinton proposed a vast expansion of US interests.

A reshuffling of oil licence interests between companies prospecting off the Falkland Islands helped lift the share prices of Desire Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration on Wednesday.

Alcatel (NYSE:ALA.TO - News)-Lucent, the Franco-American communications equipment maker, has agreed to sell its corporate call centre services business for as much as $1.5bn to Permira, the private equity group, ...

Germany is pushing its European partners to deliver treaty change within the next two years, in order to bring about closer integration in the eurozone and reinforce budget discipline.

Aer Lingus has asked shareholders to approve technical adjustments to its balance sheet that would enable it to pay special dividends in the future.

China has for the first time revealed the estimated size of its copper inventories, shedding light on one of the commodity market's biggest mysteries.

Senior Labour figures have pledged to fight on against contentious reforms of the National Health Service even though the government managed to see off attempts in the House of Lords to send the plans ...

Chrysler and the United Auto Workers have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract that the union said would result in the US carmaker investing $4.5bn and creating 2,100 jobs.

It is a well-known fact that baseball is all about real life, or something close to it, while politics, especially these days, lives in an artificial world of its own making. Rarely has the juxtaposition ...

The US Federal Reserve considered a new round of quantitative easing as an option at its September monetary policy meeting, suggesting that "QE3" is still possible if the economy weakens further....

Leading European banks say they would rather sell assets than raise expensive new capital to meet compulsory demands from the European Union for higher capital ratios, threatening a further contraction ...

London's Frieze Art Fair opened its doors to VIP guests on Wednesday in an optimistic mood, defiantly showcasing the beautiful, the bohemian and the bizarre despite the volatility in world markets and ...

Investors have become so perturbed by the uncertain economic outlook that they have fled junk bonds, leaving the $1,000bn market priced as if a deep and painful recession lies ahead.

Is that it? That is the question investors should be asking. After years of empire building, a string of chief executives are seemingly throwing in the towel on what were once grand enterprises. If there ...