Barack Obama speaks on the economy in Ohio. Many Democratic incumbents are openly avoiding any link with him. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images Barack Obama is launching a campaign to persuade American voters that the ailing US economy is safe in his hands, ahead of November’s mid-term elections in which the Democrats are expected to receive [...]

Google has been accused of manipulating its rivals’ search rankings. Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP Regulators in Texas have launched the first broad anti-trust review of Google’s search and advertising practices in the US. While federal regulators in Washington have investigated the impact on competition of Google’s business deals in the past, Greg Abbott, Texas attorney [...]

Tony Blair is welcomed by staff at Dublin’s Easons bookshop yesterday as about 100 protesters chanted outside. Photograph: Niall Carson/Getty Literature and politics have always laid claim to Dublin’s O’Connell Street, bookended by statues of James Joyce and Catholic emancipator Daniel O’Connell. Tony Blair, in his modest way, was no doubt hoping connections would be [...]

Portuguese drugs policy favours sending users to ‘dissuasion boards’. Photograph: Alamy British officials are examining a pioneering Portuguese anti-drugs programme that decriminalises possession of substances including heroin and cocaine. Controversial when it was first introduced almost a decade ago, the move has turned possession into an “administrative offence”, which sends those caught with drugs for [...]

The death of David Kelly was a ‘textbook’ case of suicide, a pathologist has said. Photograph: Ian Waldie/Getty Images The pathologist who performed the autopsy on the government scientist David Kelly said today that his death was a “textbook” case of suicide but he...