CULTURE-JAMAICA: The Recapture of Fort Augusta

Long ago, lawless men roamed the Caribbean, capturing islands, attacking and sinking enemy vessels.

SRI LANKA-CINEMA: Swamped at Home, Film makers Go Abroad

Forced to queue-up to show their films at home, some of Sri Lanka's finest film makers are taking their movies abroad to serious film buffs and movie-going expatriates.

CINEMA-USA: No Space for ‘Lottoland’

When John Rubino set out to make a film about his own multiracial community in urban Brooklyn, he tried to portray a different view of New York than the gangster-ridden world shown in other recent films on ghetto life.

RWANDA-ART: Drawing from Horror

Human heads piled atop each other intertwined with whizzing loops? A lion devouring bundles of bamboo?

CHINA-ART: Lost Relics of the Forbidden City

Visitors to the museum located in what was for five centuries the Forbidden City - home of China's imperial families - are invariably moved by the exquisite ancient treasures on display. They don't know what they're missing.

AFRICA-FILM: Look What They’re Watching in Lagos

The scene is eastern Nigeria during the time of colonial rule. A British missionary in the land of the Arochukwu people has been missing for weeks. Information filters through that he was captured by head-hunters from neighbouring Musanga where the King wants the skull of a white man to be used as a foot rest.

UNITED STATES-FILM: ‘Girl 6’ Skewers Sexism with Postmodern Wit

U.S. director Spike Lee's career has been filled with controversy, including repeated charges over the years that his films objectify women in a blatantly sexist manner.

MUSIC-JAMAICA: Soul in Reggae Land

A music festival featuring soul and rhythm and blues stars is scheduled to take place in Jamaica at the end of May, organisers said.

THEATRE-COLOMBIA: Hype, But Questions about Festival’s Focus

Organisers of the Iberoamerican Theatre Festival are understandably proud: 78 companies from 31 countries are represented at the fifth staging of the event, and about 1.5 million people are expected to attend one or more of the 484 performances.

PANAMA-COPYRIGHT: A Battle Royal Over Royalties

A 2.5 million dollar suit brought by songwriter Milton Vargas against a publicity agency that used his jingles without paying royalties is expected to set a precedent for what could be a flood of similar cases.

SLOVAKIA-CRAFT: Back to the Past to Enliven the Now

Once upon a time in Slovakia, the land was rugged, so farming was almost impossible. Handicrafts flourished; craftsmanship was in vogue.

ITALY: The Glass of Murano, a Seven Thousand Year-old Story

The Phoenicians discovered it by accident 7,000 years ago, the Romans made jewellery out of it, it was the material "nearest to God" in the middle ages.

UNITED STATES-THAILAND: Batman, Comic-book Hero, Wrestles Sex Trade

After decades of battling surreal villains like the Joker and the Penguin, Batman, perhaps the world's most famous comic-book hero, has set his sights on traffickers in child prostitution.

AFRICA-LITERATURE: French and Portuguese Writers’ Prose, in English

The literature of French- and Portuguese- speaking African countries gets a boost this month when the publishing firm Heinemann launches four new novels translated into English.

LITERATURE-KENYA: Journey Through Girls’ World

"The scene that met my eyes was horrifying: Tables were upside down, stools were broken, the pot of milk was in pieces with milk dripping all over. My little brother and sister were crying, huddled together in a corner. I wondered: What is the cause of these problems?

CINEMA-PHILIPPINES: Deluge of ‘Bold’ Movies Kicks Up A Storm

'Bold' movies in the Philippines have little to do with the lofty trait of bravery, but everything to do with saucy, steamy and sexually explicit films.

MUSIC: Jamaica’s Dancehall Culture Throbs in Big Screen Debut

The premiere here of 'KLASH', an adventure movie woven around the vibrant culture that has developed around Jamaica's Dancehall music, is seen as a coming of age for the popular sound.

GERMANY: Humourous, New-age Films Make Directors Laugh to the Bank

Take a simple story. Add lights, camera, action, lots of ironic humour, and big name personalities, and you have the main ingredients which have suddenly enlivened German cinema.

CINEMA: Fusion of Cinema and Visual Arts

A year later than the rest of the world, Britain is now celebrating the centenary of film.

CINEMA-BRITAIN: ‘Richard III’ Becomes a Failed Fascist Satire

Pity William Shakespeare. To get modern audiences to see his spectacular, biased history of King Richard III, director Richard Loncraine and actor Ian McKellen have dressed the play up in pseudo-Nazi garb.

THEATRE-BURKINA FASO: Theatre for Development

Led by the intrepid Lysistrata, Athenian women fed up with the interminable war that had plunged their country into blood and fire, decide to end it by refusing to have sex with their husbands.