In 1987 two military coups led by ethnic Fijians overthrew Fiji's elected government and governing councils. Three years later, no one would claim things are back to normal, but changes are happening. In a newspaper message on 18 October - the Hindu celebration of Diwali - the Prime Minister of the interim government, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, wrote of the need for harmony, tolerance and respect between ethnic Fijians and the Indians, who make up 46 per cent of the population. `Let us rededicate ourselves to promoting and facilitating national unity and strengthening the bonds of nationhood.

The fighting in Central America has dragged on for decades. In May 1989 we published a profile of Guatemalan activist Eliezer Cifuentes, who only just escaped a hail of bullets and was forced into exile in Costa Rica. There he struggled with `the tigers of hatred in my heart for the military, whom I blamed for the attempt on my life, and for the US which I felt was backing them'.

By the year 2000, nearly half the people on earth will live in cities.

A walk with Ove Jensen on his farm in Trossnas, Sweden, will convince you that Swedish farmers are among the most efficient in the world. Encouraged to make the most of the country's harsh climate by Sweden's system of food subsidies, Swedish farms bristle with the latest technology. But Jensen's commitment to producing food doesn't stop at Sweden's borders.

When Rajmohan, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, announced that he was running against the incumbent PM, few thought that he might win.

Apart from Phnom Penh, more Cambodians live in Site 2, a refugee camp just inside the Thai border, than in any other settlement in the world.

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.

As one of the capitals of the theatre world, some may think that London already has enough theatres.

Whether Gorbachev's policy of glasnost is having sufficient effect on Soviet economic life remains to be seen.

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