IN THE HERALD

The NSW Police Force claimed an 85 per cent clear-up rate for the 16,702 crimes reported for the year. The chief commissioner, Walter Childs, said that 6598 persons had been arrested. Property stolen during the year totalled 132,421 and the amount recovered totalled 141,976, the difference being property stolen in previous years. "The state has been reasonably free of serious crime - that is, organised and systematic crime - and even then most crimes committed are speedily cleared up."

So easily the words slip from politicians' mouths. So easily they prance and bray

THE refugee camp on the Thai border, right across the Mekong River from Laos, was hot, dusty and crowded. A big, awkward Australian in a wide-brimmed hat plunged between the bamboo huts, trying without success to avoid stepping into stinking open drains. He was on a mission, and he stomped on, searching for a little family in one of those huts.

Across The Ocean And Into The Past

An adventurer has chosen to re-create the perilous voyage William Bligh was forced to make, writes Keeli Cambourne.

Savill Row Averted In The Nick (of Time, That Is)

WITH the latest "is it art or porn?" debate sparking a philosophical disconnect between PM Kev and Age art critic Robert Nelson, Diary can reveal that the larger-than-life art dealer Denis Savill (below) almost got caught in the crossfire at the weekend.

Italy's Stubborn Rotten Stench

The giant rotting piles of garbage that litter the streets of southern Italian towns such as Casal di Principe are an apt symbol of the putrefying hold that organised crime has over every aspect of life in this blighted part of the world.

New Life Turned To Domestic Horror

A GRANDFATHER was arrested last night after he allegedly killed his wife and two grandchildren in an axe rampage that also left his daughter, a police officer, with serious head injuries.

Toffy Toorak's Just The Spot For A Tree Change

LIFE rolls along in Toorak, the genteel enclave where ladies who lunch parade with George Hamilton suntans and wind-resistant blonde hairdos. But not all is well in a Toorak Village arcade after a vandal slaughtered a tree in a planter box. The irate tree-hater smashed the stakes, sustaining an injury in the process, and left a trail of blood on the paving. What's strange about this case of "planter-box rage" is that the vandal showed disdain for the tree by scattering the foliage, but he/she has ...

Make Vests Compulsory, Coroner Told

Moomba Dragon Boat Festival organisers have been urged to consider making life vests compulsory after the death of two competitors earlier this year. But organisers have rejected the call, saying life vests impede paddling and destroy the color and spectacle of dragon boat racing. Mr Alex Shaw

Race Did Not Require Life Vests, Court Told

Two crewmen who drowned in a Moomba dragon boat race on the Yarra River were not required to wear life vests, the Coroner's Court was told yesterday. Mr Kooi Huat Lim, the team captain, said the Moomba Dragon Boat Festival, on 14 March, was the only dragon boat event, in his experience of interna