Stephen Vines on the daylight killings Portugal could not stop

The Chinese government has done a deal with triad criminal gangs to ensure the smooth handover of Hong Kong, a former senior Chinese official has revealed.

The battle for Hong Kong is under way. It is yet to emerge in the full light of day but the intense in-fighting within the Chinese bureaucracy for control of its newly acquired piece of territory occasionally spills into the public arena.

The hottest selling item at Peking's state-owned Friendship Store these days is a triumphalist 1997 fridge magnet, showing two happy pandas painting the red Chinese flag on top of a Union flag. Another magnet shows a gloomy British bulldog, suitcases in hand, boarding a British flight out while a panda waves him off.

Richard Lloyd Parry went to Sonbong to hear about investment, but found officials had other things in mind

From 9 to 31 March, the southeast Asian Portuguese enclave of Macau hosts its 7th Annual Arts Festival. Not to be confused with The International Music Festival, in October, which is when all the famous acts play. The Arts Festival is considered a mainly local event, which means plinkety-plunk Cantonese opera, chamber recitals, am-dram theatre and school orchestras. But such is the dearth of culture hereabouts, this is still a hot ticket

...and then there's the route that Simon Calder took

STEPHEN VINES

DIANE STORMONT

Lu Ping, the director of Peking's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office,who is visiting Hong Kong this week, is effectively the man responsible for bringing the colonies back into the Chinese fold. He is something of an enigma.

A £40m Asia Pacific joint venture is being launched by Inchcape and Gestetner, spawning the region's biggest independent office equipment distributor, with sales of £220m.

China approved foreign investment projects with contracted investment of $68.5bn in 1994, down from nearly $100bn in the same period of 1993, the Economic Daily reported.

Singapore - Relatives and friends mourned a young Hong Kong mother hanged in Singapore yesterday for drug trafficking, despite a stay of execution over Christmas and international pleas for mercy.

MAYBE he should just give up on foreigners. On the heels of his misadventures in Germany, where the crowds were far ruder than expected, the Prime Minister of China, Li Peng, has had another slap in the face, this time from the Portuguese.