Bahrain. 09:00. Mechanics have been working all night - partly to get things ready, partly because some only arrived yesterday and partly because it's cooler at night. The first engines fire up and out onto track come the first two cars. Jarno Trulli is followed by Heikki Kovalainen: it's the first time a Lotus has been at a Formula One race meeting since the end of the 1994 season; it's six months to the day since the FIA granted the team entry. And it's all been achieved from scratch with no takeover of an existing team and no backing of an established GP2 or similar team... and that's not all.

The deadline for UK residents (excluding the famed non-dom class) to declare offshore accounts and pay any tax due is today. If they do it online. If they want to use paper, it's already too late.

There are estimates of just how much surplus China has in US dollars. There is little doubt that it's enough to cause lasting and long-term harm to the US currency if China dumped it. So when it's got no real growth potential sitting in a bank, what would you do with it? China's answer? It's becoming the lender to the world, adopting the Kennedy policy of the early 1960s in relation to South America, but without a regional restriction.

Last month, the Thai authorities warned travellers to Bangkok to be cautious due to the threat of disturbances from supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin. Now some 30 countries are warning their citizens to be cautious as widespread demonstrations are planned for the Thai Capital today.

Three companies based in Bolton in the north of England which used misleading sales practices to solicit sponsorship from businesses have been wound up in the High Court following an investigation by Company Investigations of the Insolvency Service.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained an emergency court order to shut down a Ponzi scheme targeting retirees in California and Illinois by inviting them to estate planning seminars and later coaxing them to buy promissory notes for purported Turkish investments.

The USA lumps all kinds of insolvency proceedings under the single heading of "bankruptcy" and so its headline figures are misleading. But behind the headline figure - that there was a near-30% increase in 2009 as against 2008, there are some trends that indicate a deep malaise in the US economy - and signs that there's still a long way to go before bad debt has returned to actuarially acceptable levels.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd.

It was a momentous moment - Lotus packed their trucks with kit, people and (to the surprise of many) two cars and set off for the airport en route for Bahrain. Williams is chuffed for a different reason.