Could this possibly be one of the best-looking cars that $146,000 money can currently buy? If just for admiring from 10 paces, the 2007 Sport GT is worth every cent. These cars are still hand-built in Modena, so the niggles that I have about low-rent plastic fixtures and tainted attention to detail should be ignored. Maserati claim that 16 Quattroportes are built per day, so to expect Japanese-level quality control is a waste of your time. Yet the Italian manufacturer has recently invested more than $60m in the plant to address these imperfections. Each car is now meant to receive an extensive visual inspection and a few hours of drive time under their belt before they set sail. Or so they say. There must be a few stragglers that fall to the wayside, avoiding their multimillion-point test check, and an afternoon's jaunt around the Italian countryside.

Buddhism's travels in India, China and Southeast Asia

Once upon a time, there lived a young and extremely privileged prince. After his birth, sages predicted that he would achieve greatness in life by becoming either a great king or a holy man. Naturally, his kingly father felt that his son should follow his footsteps and rule the kingdom. So he decided to shield the prince from all religious teachings, even going as far as hiding all the sick and elderly people from his son so that the prince would not know anything about the reality of human suffering. Of course, try as the king might, the cat was let out of the bag when the 29 year old prince finally saw an old man during his tour of the kingdom and realised that ageing and suffering was a natural part of humanity. In response, the prince ran away from home, leaving his crown, his rich palaces and family to try to make sense of the world.

Walking back to happiness

Is there anything so unconvincing as those 'three little words'? Maybe I'm just a cynic. Maybe I need to have more faith in people. Maybe I should learn to trust. But, somehow, my button of disbelief is flicked into place as soon as I hear them. You know the little three words I mean: 'According to researchers ...'

Anyway, according to researchers, women can cure depression by going for a walk. Regular strolling will also relieve female anxiety and stress, reveals the American study, published in this month's issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. (I'd love to tell you I discovered the news in that particular journal. But I doubt you'd believe anyone subscribes to it, apart from oncologists and possibly Stephen Fry. I got the gist from an idiot version on the radio.)

It is a heartening bulletin, especially after last week's Observer report about how women are facing an epidemic of depression.

Education gap has widened under Labour

The educational gulf between rich and poor has widened over the last 20 years as more middle-class teenagers go to university, according to a report published today.

Japan's Lost Decade

America's stock market is about 15 percent below its October 2007 peak, suggesting that investors are currently expecting a mild U.S. recession. More ominously, however, credit markets have largely ceased to function, save for the highest quality loans, suggesting that a sharp reduction in the quantity of credit available at market-clearing interest rates is threatening to curtail real economic activity by more than the seemingly benign level of market interest rates would suggest.

The United States is experiencing an intensifying lack of credit availability that is causing a sharp economic slowdown--until recently unforeseen by most economists, including those at the Federal Reserve. This is understandable--though not comforting--because most economic models capture the link between financial markets and the real economy with movements in the level of interest rates.