Before the weekend was over, Casey was in the middle of a transatlantic storm and Colin Montgomerie's position as every drunk American golf fan's favourite European whipping boy looked precarious.

BBC: Candid Casey eyes fresh start

Much fine speechifying ensued as both sides tried to appeal to the American fund managers in the audience by whipping out competing sets of figures to demonstrate the shareholder value inherent in their proposals.

ECONOMIST: French banks

True, the Academy Awards do purport to honour excellence, but each year it becomes more of a grand American circus with stars, directors, publicists, studio executives and fans willingly whipping themselves into a frenzy.

BBC: NEWS | Entertainment | Oscars race begins to take shape

The Middle Eastern press is full of harsh words about American aggression and pictures of the civilian victims that Iraq has put on display, whipping the public into a fury, both at the war itself and at their own governments' failure to take a tougher line against it.

ECONOMIST: Trouble on the doorstep