Higher tax receipts helped Switzerland to another surplus in 2019, with withholding tax and direct federal tax performing particularly well.

Cost of hiring a very large crude carrier rises past $200,000/day

For many classical music lovers, myself included, Beethoven is the greatest. Even for those who don't rate him the best, it's hard to imagine any but the cloth-eared failing to rank him with Bach and Mozart.

This year saw a string of colourful comments by the great and good. Author PAUL DONNELLEY rounds up the most shocking and hilarious remarks of 2019. So who said what?

CHARLES SALE - SPORTS AGENDA IN PARIS: It has emerged on the eve of the Ryder Cup that European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley earned a salary of £2.78million last year.

The 21-year-old was spotted in Klemzig, in northern Adelaide, at 2:30am on Wednesday when police saw him driving with his lights on high-beam.

The supermarket's latest preliminary results cover the year to 29 February and do not cover the spell of mass panic buying in the last few weeks.

Willie Mullins got off the mark for the week at the Cheltenham Festival when Ferny Hollow downed better-fancied stablemate Appreciate It in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper.

Fight fans could welcome back boxing and MMA action with a bumper July schedule if the coronavirus crisis is quelled in time. It comes after news Joshua's title fight could be moved from June.

Some people will disapprove of the idea of making money from this struggle. But investors have been snapping up shares in businesses developing vaccines or tests.

Virgin Money is currently running a bumper sign-up offer on its Virgin Atlantic Rewards+ credit card - enough points to get a free return flight to New York. but it ends at 4pm - should you sign up now?

Frequent fliers after air miles towards their next holiday could take advantage of a new sign up bonus which could get them to three continents, provided they're happy to pay a fee.

Receives bids for 225.69 crore shares

Claims of a cotton bumper crop in Maharashtra have faded. Farmers feel such talk was meant to push prices down further. Procurement delays could also force many to sell in distress to private buyers, writes P Sainath.

As winter chill sets in, Vidarbha farmers are beginning to feel the heat of massive losses, besotted as they are by worries over the hungry months ahead. “It’s the worst crop year I’ve ever seen,” notes farmers’ leader Vijay Jawandhia. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

The state Government is pleased at the production, the farmer with his cheques and transporters with their business.

While farmers are selling potatoes for as low as Rs 1-1.50 per kilo to the middlemen, consumers are shelling out Rs 7-10 in the retail market.

Even as Kashmir loses thousands of hectares of its agricultural land to urbanisation...

It turned out to be a prosperous 2008 for Punjab farmers as they reaped rich dividends from the bumper wheat and paddy crops. The plentiful season brought some cheer for the state Government as well with Punjab farmers

Call it the paradox of timing clear skies when the farmers looked up for rains and it poured when they wanted the sun....

Along with experiencing a bumper wheat crop this season, farmers in Uttar Pradesh are also forced to sell their produce for as low as Rs 910 per quintal...

Despite knowing that its storage capacity was far less, the state government revised its wheat procurement target twice. Procurement shot up due to a populist measure of Rs 100 per quintal bonus

Even as monsoon is late by a month and less than normal, the state is hopeful of a record yield of Sali variety.

Companies have also tweaked their strategies to take advantage of the festival season. Skoda Auto has advanced the launch of its new Rapid sedan.