Why is a raven like a writing desk?

The chief rabbi of a West Bank settlement prohibits women from a local election, saying their husbands must speak for them.

When I am dead, my dearest, sing no songs for me; plant no roses at my head, nor shady cypress tree. Be the green grass above me with showers and drewdrops wet. And if thou will, remember, and if thou will not, forget.

Belarus says it has fully paid off its debts to Gazprom for Russian gas, shortly after more than half its gas was cut off.

Europe's Planck observatory has given another brief glimpse of its work.The space telescope's main goal is to map the "oldest light" in the Universe, but this data is being kept under wraps until the surveying is complete.

The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.

BP is to place $20bn in an independent fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill and will cancel dividend payments for 2010.

A new steel dome has been placed beside the damaged oil well that has been polluting the Gulf of Mexico since last month's drilling rig disaster, BP says.

United and Continental Airlines confirmed Monday that they have agreed to merge in a share swap deal that will create the world's largest airline.

Police are searching for a gunman who has killed several people after opening fire in west Cumbria, northern England.

The number of people unemployed in the UK fell by 34,000 to 2.47m in the three months to May, official figures show.

The European Parliament on Wednesday approved limits on banker bonuses from January, drawing the ire of the banking industry which warned that the restrictions could undermine Europe's competitiveness and benefit rival global financial centres.

German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle says he has rejected a request for state aid by General Motors for its Opel division.

The night opens the flowers in secret and allows the day to get thanks.

New home sales in the US slumped by a third in May compared with the previous month as tax credits expired, figures show.