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LONDON Three years of crisis in the euro zone have thrust the once-sleepy government debt market into the public spotlight and transformed the way bonds are viewed, valued and traded. Huge debts run up by governments since the euro’s creation in 1999 have turned the bond market, which financed a decade of fiscal excess using its huge pool of faithful investors, into an arbiter of economic policy capable of fracturing the euro zone. With those investors now far choosier, once arcane movements in bond yields have become the main indicator of the euro zone crisis and the borrowing costs of [...]

A car safety test for a common type of crash — where the front corners of two cars collide as the drivers swerve to avoid each other — found only three of 11 midsize luxury cars earned a passing mark. Yet the mediocre results released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in August don’t mean new cars are any less safe. They mean that safety experts have once again raised the bar. The IIHS, which is funded by the insurance industry, runs a variety of crash tests on new cars and rates their performance as Good, Acceptable, Marginal [...]

Eurostar has modified its first-class carriages for Paralympic athletesParalympians from France and Belgium will arrive in London via the high speed rail serviceEurostar aims to double the number of seats on offer to disabled passengers next year Eurostar is used to catering for Europe’s business big shots but in the run-up to the Paralympic Games the high speed rail operator is instead priming its services for the continent’s elite disabled athletes.First-class carriages on two Eurostar trains have been overhauled to make room for special facilities that meet the travel requirements of hundreds of Paralympians heading for London 2012.Eurostar engineering manager [...]

Professional athletes are valued regular guests at luxury hotelsThey can have special requirements for check-in, privacy, food — even bed sizeHockey players are the best behaved, according to two Boston hotel managersBoston — You might not consider baseball or basketball players to be your typical business travelers. But the realities of life for professional athletes, whose job requires them to spend months on the road each year, means they become every bit as travel hardened as the most experienced sales executive.Golf legend Gary Player claims to have racked up about 15 million miles during his career, while Major League Baseball [...]

LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 11: Actress Scarlett Johansson arrives at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on February 11, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)Monique Lhuillier is one of Hollywood’s favorite fashion designersAt 23, she started a bridalwear business that has expanded into a luxury lifestyle brandShe believes her success is due to her ability to relate to her customersLos Angeles — Born and raised in the Philippines to a businessman and a socialite model, Monique Lhuillier is today one of LA’s most celebrated fashion designers, with a clientele that includes Gwyneth [...]