The Royal Mail commemorates 150 years of rescuing and re-homing animals with its set of commemorative stamps showing some of its success stories

Mahmoud Abbas ‘not ready to negotiate’ after Israel announces 1,600 new homes for East Jerusalem The Palestinians pulled out of a new round of indirect peace talks last night, even before they had begun, as a protest at Israel’s decision to announce approval for hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.

It’s better for Obama to have the odd puff if the alternative is keeping all that stress bottled up inside The Guardian kicked the habit long ago, banning smoking from the office years before it became the law of the land.

Your report on the BBC World Service documentary on aid to Ethiopia 25 years ago ( Report , 9 March) quotes a senior BBC source saying the corporation was concerned about the amount of criticism that “a relatively obscure documentary [which] didn’t even mention Band Aid” has attracted. In fact, the offending documentary devotes its first five minutes to the Live Aid relief effort, which was directly related to Band Aid.

The Conservative party’s calls for immediate cuts to the economy have been met by a growing chorus of criticism, warning that this risks sending the economy back into recession ( Report , 8 March). The government was right to stimulate the economy with a variety of measures last year and so offset some of the worst effects of the recession. Yet, as some of the world’s leading economists have pointed out , the fragile nature of the recovery means that fiscal stimulus is still required

The conditions exist for a settlement, which would limit Taliban influence to the south, preserve advances and cut corruption Two thoughtful speeches this week dealt with the challenging legacy of America’s war on terror. The first was given in London by Eliza Manningham-Buller , the former head of MI5. She spoke about the use of torture by American intelligence.

The debate over resourcing the armed forces that has ensued from Gordon Brown’s presence at the Chilcot inquiry ( Editorial , 6 March) is put into perspective by the recent failure of the MoD to respond to MPs inquiries about “black holes” in defence procurement.

Dame Eliza was right to speak up for the security services, but only an inquiry will raise morale The comments by former MI5 head Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller , that the US hid from Britain’s security services the torture they were meting out to detainees, at first blush appear extraordinary.

The IPL, six weeks of razzmatazz and TV with a little sport, is predicted to double last year’s takings It is already big and brash. It is about to get substantially bigger and brasher

Developing nations storm Forbes rich list as America Movil’s Carlos Slim beats Microsoft’s Bill Gates to top spot The old order is under threat at the world’s billionaires club. Traditionally dominated by Americans and Europeans, the top ranks of the world’s richest people have been infiltrated by scores of ultra-rich entrepreneurs from the developing world – capped by the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim. Today, Slim, the titan of mobile phones in Mexico, criticised as a ruthless monopolist, was crowned as the richest person in the world by Forbes magazine , which calculated his net worth at $53.5bn (£35.7bn)