The SEC is pursuing more and more hedge fund abuses. It hopes that requiring managers to register, as passed by the regulator on October 26, will eradicate the problem. It won't. Investors need to see independent valuations.

Ukraine was evenly divided ahead of presidential elections on October 31 as leading opposition candidate and liberal reformer Viktor Yushchenko faced off with the establishment's candidate, prime minister Viktor Yanukovich. Campaigning has been dirty and the threat of riots will hang over Kiev if the opposition feels it has been cheated out of an election victory that could shake up the balance of power and define foreign policy after a decade of dithering between turning east or west. The stakes are high: the two candidates were running neck and neck on the eve of the vote and Ukraine is the only former Soviet republic that can boast a grassroots political opposition.

The guest list at the second anniversary party for Hong Kong boutique spa Sense of Touch is a Rolodex of the city's female business elite. As markets rise in the region, so it seems do the stress levels of female bankers, lawyers and other professionals. So they are beating a path to this little shop in SoHo for massages, facials and other pampering.

Heinrich Pecina muses on his 15 years working in banking in central and eastern Europe. "It's a strange thing," he says, "but whenever I have worked for a larger institution in the region, after my departure it has ceased to exist." You could call it the curse of Pecina. He started his banking career working for Girozentrale. After he left it in 1990 it was taken over by Erste Bank. He then joined Creditanstalt as head of investment banking, where for the next seven years he built up the firm's brand as one of central and eastern Europe's top investment banks.

Few Russian companies have done foreign IPOs, and even fewer have issued domestically. That looks set to change in the next 12 months. Investors should expect more diversity, some big winners - and one or two unpleasant surprises.

When Diageo offloaded its US Pillsbury food division to General Mills for stock in 2001, it did not expect still to be the biggest shareholder in General Mills three years later. But as pressure mounted to dispose of the stake, poor performance at Pillsbury, SEC investigations into General Mills and the overhang of the Diageo block held back the share price. It took an exceptionally well-structured and well-executed deal to overcome these obstacles last month.

Banking is in the blood for Ariel Salama, global head of private banks at ABN Amro's wholesale clients business. For almost 300 years his family ran a bank that financed Egypt's cotton business, until the 1952 revolution forced closure and a move to Paris. There, his great-uncle, Maurice de Botton, (uncle to Gilbert de Botton, founding chairman of Global Asset Management) established Banque Générale du Commerce, where Salama began his banking career.