RELIGION-INDIA: Canonisation Takes More Than Miracles

Christians who form 20 percent of the 32 million people of this southern Indian state are celebrating Sunday’s canonisation of their beloved Sister Alphonsa, unmindful of the controversies that surround the event and the life of the nun who lived at Bharananganam, a village 33 km from here.

POLITICS-THAILAND: ‘Class Struggle’ in Political Battle

Beyond the sound and fury at the rallies and violence at recent protests here in Thai capital, a larger, more painful struggle over how to resolve deep divisions in electoral democracy continues - and may well reshape politics in this South-east Asian country.

RIGHTS-US: Muslim Charity to Get Its Day in Court

In what appears to be another stunning legal rebuke to President George W. Bush's policies in the "global war on terrorism", a federal judge has blocked the government from blacklisting a Muslim-oriented charity to give the group a chance to defend itself after its assets were frozen almost three years ago.

ECONOMY: Calls for Change Mount at IMF, World Bank Meet

Gone are the mobs in the street. Faced with a global recession, those demanding change from the rulers of the global economy appear to be on the inside as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank hold annual talks.

SRI LANKA: Deep Plot Seen in Former Tiger Turning MP

It might have been the script of a Tamil blockbuster movie. When Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, eastern commander of the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), turned renegade in 2004 he could not have dreamt of being sworn in as a member of Sri Lanka’s parliament.

ECONOMY-MEXICO: Bracing for the Blow

The Mexican government has taken emergency financial measures to withstand the winds of crisis from the United States, which this country is heavily dependent on as shown by their daily bilateral trade volume of one billion dollars on average. However, the measures will not completely ward off the impact, say analysts.

“Dirty Oil” up close: a photo essay from Alberta’s tar sands.

EU: Defiant Guyana to be Punished

The European Union is preparing to impose swingeing taxes on goods imported from Guyana as punishment for the Caribbean island's refusal to accept a free trade accord.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Florida Hopes Energy Farm Will Be First of Many

If an experiment to plant sweet sorghum in rural Florida and convert it to fuel ethanol pans out, it could herald a fundamental change in how the U.S. and other countries create and use renewable bio-energy, researchers say.

POLITICS-SENEGAL: Ms. Mayor, Ms. Prefect

The Sicap Baobab neighborhood, one of the prettiest in the Senegalese capital, stands out, but not for the most obvious reasons. Not for its well-paved roads, or the number of naturalised immigrants from Cabo Verde, Togo or Benin, not for the hustle and bustle of the formal and informal economies.

BOOKS-IRAQ: Kurdish Jews Recall a Paradise Lost

It's become popular, when talking about ongoing violence in U.S.-occupied Iraq, for officials in Washington and the media to paint the Iraqi people as savages who can't help but keep killing each other.

CENTRAL AMERICA: Garifunas Confront Their Own Decline

"The Garífuna were the best sailors in the world," says Jermonino Barrios, standing barefoot on this slender thread of land between the Laguna de Los Micos and the blue Caribbean Sea.

DEVELOPMENT: Overdue Award Goes to the Right Man

The Finns had almost waited for the Nobel Peace Prize for Martti Ahtisaari too long. It finally came as a happy surprise, amidst speculation it would go this year to Asia.

POLITICS-US: Voter Fraud Charges Echo Past Partisan Fights

The Nevada voter registration operation of a low-income advocacy organisation had its offices raided on Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation by state authorities into whether the group is involved in systematic voter fraud.

DEATH PENALTY: Activists Reveal Japan's Death Row to the World

Japan’s death row inmates revealed to the world on Friday their personal stories of isolation and suffering, uninformed until the last minute when they will be taken to the gallows.

CHINA: Nothing Confucian About Toxic Milk

For a country with an enduring tradition of Confucian ethics, the poisoned milk scandal - possibly the worst crisis of its type in Chinese modern history - has had a devastating blow on the public's trust in its government's benevolence.

KENYA: Predicting Weather With Science and Spider Webs

When the magungu bird flies higher in the sky than usual and seems to float in the air in its passage from south to north, the Abasuba people living on the islands of Kenya's Lake Victoria and on the highlands near the lake know the rains are on their way and that it is time to plant.

MADAGASCAR: A Difficult Step For Women

The northern region of Diana is known for the beautiful beaches of the Nosy-Be district and the scent of fields of ylang-ylang flowers. But the political landscape of Diana is as extraordinary as its geography: the region's administrative head is a woman, Anjara Mantasara.

POLITICS: Unchecked Arms Trade Fuelling Conflict, Poverty

With 1.3 trillion dollars spent every year on the world's militaries, countries enmeshed in conflict are often flooded by weapons which are then turned against helpless civilian populations, say human rights organisations pushing for an international treaty to closely regulate arms sales.

ECONOMY-US: Shelters and Soup Kitchens Hold Crisis Front Lines

Wall Street may be in the throes of agony, but business is booming at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen a bit farther north in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Chelsea.

RIGHTS: EU Parliament Acts Against Child Trafficking

The European Union needs to develop a programme against child trafficking, the bloc's only directly elected institution has declared.