WILLIAM Shakespeare was born four and a half centuries ago this year; he was baptised on April 26, 1564.

Stocks slipped on Wall Street yesterday, pushing the market to a weekly loss, as investors assessed the latest round of company earnings.

Two boys kidnapped four years apart and found in the same US flat smiled shyly but said nothing to media at two packed news conferences today, a day after they were rescued.

Skeletons, many wearing clothes and blindfolded, jut out from the desert sands in south-western Iraq where forensics experts have unearthed at least two mass graves of victims from the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shiite uprising.

North American car rental company Enterprise Rent-A-Car has announced significant expansion plans in its three European markets - Ireland, the UK and Germany.