/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-VIETNAM: Filmmakers Question How to Develop Industry

Vietnam's movie industry is focused on the question of how to revitalise itself. Some directors say it should produce enjoyable films to appeal to local youth while others believe filmmakers should move away from traditional plot-oriented educative movies to more innovative ones designed to make a strong impression on audiences at home and abroad.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-U.S.: ‘The Passion’ Incites New Divisions Among Neo-Cons

Increasingly split and defensive over whether the United States has to cooperate more with the United Nations and the Europeans and whether Syria or Iran should be ''next'' in the war on terrorism, the neo-conservative movement is now beset by a new source of tension within its ranks - Mel Gibson's film, 'The Passion of the Christ'.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ TV-MEXICO: ‘El Chavo’ Vanquishes Time

'El Chavo del Ocho', the poor Mexican eight-year-old (really a 40-year-old man dressed as a boy) with a heart of gold and a bit on the clumsy side, was the star of a television series of the same name three decades ago, and today survives as a TV favourite for millions of viewers.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ARGENTINA: Bringing Classical Music to the Workers

Accustomed to playing for a small cultural elite in fancy theatres and churches, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Argentina, created in 1948, performed for the first time ever in a factory, as part of a novel programme aimed at reaching out to new audiences.

SOCIETY-JAPAN: Young Drug Addicts Lack Support

Ryo recalls how he started inhaling paint thinner when he was 10 years old, at a time when he was trying to cope after his parents divorced and he was forced to live with his strict Japanese father.

POLITICS-U.S.: Religious, Science Groups Urge End to Nukes

An international group of religious and scientific leaders Monday appealed to the United States and all other nuclear states to pledge never to use nuclear weapons and to re-affirm their commitments to achieving total nuclear disarmament.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Reproductive Care a Work in Progress

With the world marking International Women's Day this week, women in South Africa might find themselves asking what benefits 10 years of democracy have brought them - especially in the important area of reproductive health.

MEXICO: The Left’s Rising Star Complains of Smear Campaign

Mexico City Mayor Andrés López Obrador accused the government Monday of mounting a smear campaign against him with support from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to torpedo his chances of becoming president in 2006.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: New Human Rights Chair Comes Under Fire

Australia, which will chair the U.N.'s supreme human rights body investigating violations by member states worldwide, has come under fire for abuses in its own backyard.

POLITICS-U.S.: Religious, Science Groups Urge End to Nukes

An international group of religious and scientific leaders Monday appealed to the United States and all other nuclear states to pledge never to use nuclear weapons and to re-affirm their commitments to achieving total nuclear disarmament.

INT’L WOMEN’S DAY: Unions Launch New Campaign

A leading trade union network is launching a new initiative to defend the rights of women workers.

AGRICULTURE-BRAZIL: Battle Over Transgenics Rages On

The cultivation of transgenic soy beans is harmful to human health, the environment and agriculture, according to the Brazilian Consumer Defence Institute (IDEC), a government agency.

ENVIRONMENT: Greasy Palms Ruining Forests

One in three food products sold in Europe's supermarkets could be contributing to the destruction of forests and wild life, says a report released in London Monday by Friends of the Earth.

/INT’L WOMEN’S DAY/MALAYSIA: Women Create Space in Coming Polls

- I am a most reluctant candidate,'' laughs former academic and women's activist Rohana Ariffin from Malaysia. ‘‘I got pushed and dragged into it.''

HEALTH-ZAMBIA: NGOs in the Hot Seat

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has had an uneasy relationship with civil society from the beginning of his term in office. However, matters worsened recently when he accused AIDS activists of monopolising the funds provided by donors to fight the pandemic.

INT’L WOMEN’S DAY-MIDEAST: Violence Takes a Heavy Toll

Menbere Kifle had planned to return to her two teen-age children in Ethiopia. She had worked as an illegal labourer in Israel for ten years, she had saved some money, and acquired a new passport.

DEVELOPMENT-NEPAL: Anti-Poverty Measures Need a New Push

Fifty-five-year-old Santa Bahadur Majhi moved to Kathmandu from a remote village in Ramechhap district in eastern Nepal in 2000, the same year world leaders pledged to halve world's poverty by 2015.

/REPEAT/POLITICS-INDIA: Hindu Warrior Back in His ‘Chariot’

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads India's ruling coalition, has launched a new stratagem in its high-pitched election campaign to rake up its trademark issue of religious and ethnic identities.

AUSTRALIA: Activists Amazed at Progress in Curbing Trafficking

Softspoken Kathleen Maltzahn, who heads a support and advocacy group on sexual slavery, is amazed when she reflects on how much has been achieved in the last year to counter the trafficking of mostly South-east Asian women into the Australian sex industry.

RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: AIDS the Focus of Int’l Women’s Day

"As a woman, I can't bring a condom home. If I do, then I'm not a wife - I'm a prostitute. My husband will ask me whether I have a secret lover. If I say I don't, he will want to know where I had learnt how to use a condom," says Siphiwe Hlophe.

INT’L WOMEN’S DAY-CHILE: When Feminism Benefits the Government

The Chilean government started early in its campaign to commemorate International Women's Day, Mar. 8, which this year has unique connotations in this country as the defence and foreign affairs ministers, both women, consolidate their places as potential candidates for president.