It is ironic that a liquor baron should retrieve the honour of India's revered prohibitionist. This happened a few days ago at Washington where the auction house, Antiquorum, put on the block Mahatma Gandhi's five personal items-his Zenith pocket watch, sandals, spectacles, a bowl and a thali (plate). Vijay Mallaya, owning a string of breweries, bought the objects for $2,096 million.

Northern Ireland has once more hit the headlines. It is not because the political settlement to a 30-year conflict which was supposedly ended by the Good Friday Agreement is working well. It is not because the implacable enemies of yesteryear -- the Republicans who want to separate from the United Kingdom and the Loyalists who want to maintain the status quo are living in what appears to be an eternal political embrace.