Life's A Picnic

The Republicans need a good kicking

The Democrats may be faltering - but they must keep faith that the electorate will punish Bush

• Anatole Kaletsky

Those things other people look after

How has it become normal, in one generation, to farm out children to poorly paid helpers?

• Camilla Cavendish

I now realise that life begins at 59

Colombia Notebook: it's nonsense to suggest that you should slow down when you reach your threescore years

• Matthew Parris

Columnists 

Find the link between these three . . .

What do these great men, Sean Connery, George Steiner and Alfred Brendel, have in common?

• Magnus Linklater

Miliband must stop playing with fire

It takes two to start a cold war and Russia has so far been provoked pointlessly into confrontation

• Robert Skidelsky

The Conservatives must put the economy straight

The British public know they will have to pay the bill for Labour's mismanagement

• Andrew Tyrie

Leading articles

Reckless Russia

By recognising two separatist Georgian provinces, Russia has redrawn the map of the Caucasus by force. It has also damaged itself immeasurably

Picture window

Britain has four months to save a Titian for the nation

Australia: dingoland

We should rejoice at news that nearly half of Australia is still wilderness

Join the Debate 

Rainy Manchester: second happiest place in Britain

Maligned city beaten only by scenic corner of Wales

Register every voter to prevent fraud, says watchdog

Electoral system requires urgent overhaul to beat postal vote deception

Russia to recognise breakaway states

Both houses of parliament support independent Abkhazia and South Ossetia; now the vote is up to President Medvedev

• US Navy arrives in Georgia to deliver aid

• Russia's 'peacekeepers' dig in to defy anger

Faith 

In an uneasy peace fear haunts Tibetan monks

Monasteries and towns across the restive west of China are on edge, waiting for the Olympic respite from violence to end

Christians stage bible protest at airport

Americans who staged a sit-in at a Chinese airport over 315 confiscated Bibles admitted defeat after almost 30 hours

Age of shroud disputed again

A leading expert on the shroud of Turin demands new tests on the controversial relic, which was dismissed two decades ago as a fake

Is Yoga evil?

According to a leading exorcist, yoga for relaxation may be a path to evil spirits

Obituaries 

John Marsden

Biologist who presided over the Linnean Society and championed the modern importance of taxonomy

Commodore Sam Dunlop

Commander of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary who played a vital role in supplying British troops during the Falklands campaign of 1982

Gino Birindelli

Italian naval officer who was a pioneer in the wartime use of ‘human torpedoes’ and later served with Nato in the Mediterranean

Bill Colleran

Adventurous music publisher who forswore popular profitability to nurture the careers of many notable 20th-century composers