Australia's Minister of Justice, Senator Michael Tate, outlined some of the problems posed by environmental degradation, by warfare and by attitudes towards embryo research and abortion.

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

Members of 44 parliaments joined world-renowned scientists. The press noted Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama. But was it in any way memorable?

At Panchgani, 4,300 feet above the plains of Maharashtra, lies a wide volcanic plateau.

At his first health service union meeting, former Welsh steel worker Albert Tarling unexpectedly found himself elected branch secretary.

A recent Nigerian conference took a form strikingly different from the usual sedentary occasions held within four walls. This 'rolling conference' spanned four different venues hundreds of miles apart.