Improved hygiene, sanitation, and surveillance, akin to that of John Snow in the 1850s, could save hundreds of millions of lives in the coming decades, writes Jim O’Neill            

HBO brings a blockbuster feel to every episode of Game of Thrones but the scale of season 5 episode Hardhome was truly epic

Americans bid farewell yesterday to Neil Armstrong, the first man to take a giant leap on to the moon.

Americans bid farewell today to Neil Armstrong, the first man to take a giant leap on to the moon.

EVEN the imaginations of those revered masters of comic opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, could not have devised a more topsy-turvy world than the august, 19th century, Courts of Justice in the Strand yesterday.

Leading economists had mixed views today about whether a recession could spread around the world.

MEMBERS of the public are being invited to vote on the greatest medical advances in more than a century.

THE Bush administration has been quietly tracking people suspected of bankrolling terrorism, using a secret programme to track thousands of international financial transactions.

The Bush administration has been quietly tracking people suspected of bankrolling terrorism through a secret programme that gives the US government access to a massive data base of international financial transactions.

George Bush has turned to a 32-year Wall Street veteran, Goldman Sachs chief Henry Paulson, in a bid to breathe life into his economic agenda and revive his troubled presidency.

US Treasury Secretary John Snow has resigned and will be replaced by Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry Paulson, in another chapter of a White House shake-up to revive President George Bush’s troubled presidency.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have received new guidelines to deal with high and rising oil prices, trade gaps and other problems that threaten to disrupt global economic growth.

The head of the International Monetary Fund says higher fuel prices will continue for the foreseeable future, as the world’s seven largest economic powers gather in Washington today.

RISING oil prices will damage the US dollar, a leading economist warned yesterday.

US President George Bush has rebuffed recommendations from a growing number of retired generals that he replace Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “He has my full support,” said Bush.

US President W Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major US seaports to a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates until the deal had already been approved by his administration, the White House said yesterday.

The US administration told Congress yesterday it had begun to use a government pension fund to keep from hitting the $8 trillion (€6.7 trillion).

STORMS battering the US Gulf Coast will soften the immediate economic outlook but rebuilding will boost growth, US Treasury Secretary John Snow told an international financial conference.

A deal to erase billions of dollars of debt for poor countries cleared an important hurdle, winning the endorsement of the International Monetary Fund’s steering committee.

The Bush administration, turning up the heat on Syria, moved today to block the financial assets of the country’s interior minister and its chief of military intelligence for Lebanon.

The US and Britain have reached an agreement on how the billions of dollars that the world’s poorest nations owe to international lenders can be erased, removing the last impediment to an accord long sought by the richest nations, The New York Times reported today.

A solution to the crippling debt burden of poor countries has eluded finance ministers and central bankers from around the world, but there are expectations an agreement could be reached later this year.

Finance officials from the world’s seven richest countries sought to calm jittery financial markets today by pledging “vigorous action” to deal with problems, including soaring energy prices, that could undermine global growth.

The US trade deficit, swollen by surging imports of oil and textiles, soared to an all-time high of more than $61bn (€47.4bn) in February.

The US Secret Service, which has the job of guarding the president and other dignitaries, now has a new temporary duty – protecting a mother duck and her nine eggs.

SUDDENLY the rediscovery of inflation in the United States by the Federal Reserve, their central bank, has sent currency markets into a tizzy.

FURTHER oil price volatility hit the markets yesterday following the blast that killed 14 people in BP’s west Texas refinery.

US Treasury Secretary John Snow has cancelled his trip to London for weekend meetings of the world’s seven richest industrial countries because he is ill with a cold.

The global economy grew by 4% last year, but massive US trade deficits coupled with a weak dollar overseas threaten economic stability worldwide, the United Nations said.

THE euro hit a record high against the dollar for a second day on Friday last, rising above $1.3540, as investors worried about the US current account deficit and economy, and pushed the single currency higher in thin holiday trade.

HEADLINES yesterday reported, subconsciously perhaps, that Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, would “raise the dollar”, when he meets George Bush on December 15 in Washington.

UNCERTAINTY about the future direction of the US dollar has entered the market in the past few days leading to fluctuations in the greenback’s value.

Oil supply concerns and broker downgrades of blue-chip companies left stocks mixed today, raising doubts that Wall Street’s year-end rally would continue.

An agreement that would see up to 80% percent of Iraq’s debt written off has been reached, Germany’s finance minister said today.

The Taoiseach is meeting the Secretary of the US Treasury today.

The United States’ trade deficit is soaring and the once high-flying dollar has sunk to record lows against Europe’s common currency but US President George Bush’s administration has reacted with remarkable calm to developments that raise worries about a possible dollar crisis.

A LIBYAN-BORN Irishman has been named by United States authorities as the director of a European al-Qaida cell.

Oil hit $50 a barrel in Asian trade today, reaching that threshold for a second straight day even though Saudi Arabia vowed to boost production capacity to try pushing the price lower.

World finance ministers pledged to do more to deal with the crushing burden of global poverty, promising help in education, debt relief and AIDS.

FINANCE chiefs from the world’s leading industrialised nations have agreed that a global recovery is gaining steam and papered over tensions on currency exchange rates by warning markets “excess volatility” should not to be tolerated.

THE BBC and the Mayor of New York attacked him last week. The American Beef Industry believe he’s rescuing them from Mad Cow Disease. The orange growers of Florida say he’s killing them.

Former US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said he never saw any evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.