A string of scandals have gained international limelight, backed up by strong sub-plots of take-over crookery and insider-dealing.

Despite Hong Kong's remarkable achievements in other fields, no administration had succeeded in efforts to deal with the corruption that thrived in its crowded streets and harbours. Anti-corruption drives were launched in 1897, 1948 and 1959. Yet by 1970, 70 per cent of news stories about Hong Kong in the British press concerned corrupt practices.

What does Lodi Gyari, a right-hand man of the Dalai Lama, make of the recent crackdown in China?

In calling me `Baba' she was not accusing me of being a black sheep; as you will have noticed, her complaint was different. In Hindi, `Baba' can mean a father.

Princess Margarita of Romania tells how 'In August last year, I resigned my job. The UN machine would keep turning without me, but Romania had only one King Michael, and he was alone.'

In one Swiss village, Caux, above Montreux, the conferences are a little different.

It was not a scene you would have expected at a scientific meeting.

She was addressing Moral Re-Armament's industrial conference at Caux, Switzerland, entitled 'Shaping the 1990s -a better use of resources'.