POLITICS-GERMANY: Extreme Right’s Victory Changes Landscape

The strong showing of the extreme right-wing German People's Union (DVU) party in last month's state elections has changed the country's political landscape ahead of September national elections here.

EDUCATION-PAKISTAN: Girls’ Schools Catch Community Interest

Believe it or not, but there is a race on for school admission for girls in the frontier province of Balochistan, Pakistan's least developed and most conservative region.

POLITICS-SENEGAL: Where the Ruling Party Never Loses a Vote

The campaign for legislative elections in one of Africa's oldest and most stable multiparty democracies kicked off Sunday but the result of the May 24 vote is a foregone conclusion.

LABOUR-NEPAL: Awareness Wins Reprieve for Child Workers

Tucked away in the foothills of the mighty Dhaulagiri Himalayan range is the small town of Baglung with big ambitions of hitting the headlines as Nepal's first "child labour free" district.

COMMUNICATIONS-SUDAN: Islamic Scholars Leary of Internet

While local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Sudan applaud the internet as a valuable tool for gathering information, Moslem scholars have condemned it as a tool of "cultural imperalism".

FOOD-SUDAN: Spectre of Mass Starvation Begins to Fade

Authorisation by the government of Sudan for the use of additional airplanes to airdrop food aid has begun to vanquish the threat of a humanitarian catastrophe in southern Sudan, razed by war and drought, the World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday.

POLITICS-SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG Searches For Arms in the Capital

A search for arms, ammunitions and explosives by the West African Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG) in the Sierra Leone capital city of Freetown has caused a wave of panic among the population of a little over a million.

POPULATION-TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Old Age Crisis Hits

There is serious concern in Trinidad and Tobago that the so-called "Old Age Crisis" due in more than 30 years, has already reached the shores of this small twin-island Caribbean state bringing poverty and suffering to thousands of pensioners.

VATICAN: Double Murder and Suicide in Pope’s Swiss Guard

A vice-corporal's grudge at being passed over for a merit award led him to kill the head of the Pope's Swiss Guard and his wife, and then commit suicide, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Tuesday.

CHILDREN: Mexico Ignores Seriousness of Child Prostitution

Mexico is cheating the international community with its closed defensive attitude on the child sex networks, a phenomenon the United Nations (UN) claims is on the increase in this country.

POLITICS-PARAGUAY: New Gov’t to Inherit Economy in Ruin

The political instability shaking Paraguay is devastating the economy, and the new government to emerge from next Sunday's elections will find a country in virtual ruin, analysts warn.

DISARMAMENT: G-8 Urged to Curb Traffic in Small Arms

U.N. officials and several human- rights and disarmament groups are pressing the Group of Eight (G- 8) industrialised nations to introduce measures at their summit this month to restrict both the legal and illicit world arms traffic.

CONFLICT-COLOMBIA: Massacre in Rural Southeast

Alleged paramilitaries massacred at least 17 people in a rural zone of the municipality of Mapiripan, in Southeast Colombia, razing the town to the ground, reported human rights groups arriving in the area Tuesday.

POLITICS-MIDDLE EAST: Albright Issues Ultimatum To Netanyahu

A visibly frustrated U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright Tuesday issued an ultimatum to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- to accept a U.S. proposal for a 13 percent troop withdrawal from the West Bank lands his forces occupy.

GUATEMALA: Little Headway in Investigation into Bishop’s Murder

Ten days after the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi, a leading proponent of human rights in Guatemala, little progress has been made in the investigation, in spite of the support lent by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

FINANCE-INDONESIA: Passing the Buck on Human Rights

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) backed political moves in Benin that saw the military dictatorship of Mathieu Kerekou replaced by a market-friendly government headed by former World Bank official Nicephore Soglo.

SOUTH KOREA: Still No Accounting of POWs in North Korea

Every July 20 for the past 45 years, Park Og- gim and her relatives have held a memorial service for her husband, Yang Soon-young, an army private reported killed in 1953 during the Korean War.

DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Orissa Tribals Face Starvation

With a fierce summer setting in, people in the poverty-ridden Kalahandi region of eastern Orissa state, called India's own Ethiopia, face another season of starvation.

CINEMA-USA: The United States – ‘The Big One’

Why call it the United States of America when you could use a more evocative name - like "The Big One"? Why should patriotic Americans stand for the the "Star-Spangled Banner" when the national anthem could be that catchy little number by Queen - "We Will Rock You"? ' These are just some of the questions asked by writer-director- author Michael Moore in a scrappy, affably populist way in his new quasi-documentary movie - called "The Big One" (distributed by Miramax).

POLITICS-FRANCE: May 1968 – The Moment Of Truth Remembered

For one week in 1968, France stood on the verge of total revolt. Between May 24-30, more than 120 factories were occupied and 12 million striking workers joined forces with students to challenge the country's moribund political establishment.

MALAYSIA: AIDS a Battle Against Religious, Cultural Taboos

The rites were Muslim. First, a 'doa' (prayer) was read, after which the wrapped body of the dead was lowered to the ground. The three persons present then took turns throwing a handful of earth each on the body, as dictated by Muslim custom.