POLITICS-US: Neocons Shaken, But Not Deterred

Almost exactly five years after it reached its zenith with the invasion of Iraq, the influence of neo-conservatives has waned sharply in Washington, as their nemeses, the "realists" in the national security bureaucracy, have increasingly asserted control over U.S. foreign policy.

ARTS-MALI: Festival Fosters Cultural Exchange in the Desert

A polar bear is in the middle of the Sahara desert. It is not a mirage.

MEXICO: Teotihuacan Sun Pyramid in for a Muon Scan

Who ruled the pre-Columbian city of Teotihuacan, in Mexico? Where are their bodies buried, what ethnic group did they belong to, and what kind of political system did they develop? A project to delve into these mysteries is under way, and may start producing answers next year.

BALKANS: Art Breaks Some Ice

An exhibition presented by Serbia in Croatian capital Zagreb is doing its bit to thaw icy relations between Serbs and Croats, who fought one another in the bloody war of disintegration of former Yugoslavia.

ARTS-CHILE: Shedding Light on the Torturers

"Where Are They?" is the title of an installation by Chilean artist Iván Navarro, prompting visitors to pick out, from a gigantic word search puzzle, the names of 332 agents who tortured and murdered opponents of the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

HEALTH-EUROPE: DJs Stage Hunger Strike for Improved Sanitation

In a six day hunger strike in cooperation with a Belgian and Swiss radio station, Dutch station 3fm raised 12.6 million dollars for clean drinking water and sanitation programmes around the world. Locked in glass houses on major squares in The Hague, Leuven and Geneva, deejays raised the money by auctioning artist memorabilia and having listeners pay to request songs.

BRAZIL: Films, Music as Damage Control in Prisons

Cultural activities in Brazilian jails these days include film screenings, live bands and libraries with shelves packed with books - part of an attempt to combat the consequences of the appalling living conditions in prison.

RIGHTS: “USA vs. Al-Arian” Highlights Real Cost of Indefinite Detentions

Twelve-year-old Lama Al-Arian looked up into a camera with a broad smile two years ago and called her father a "political prisoner". But her eyes betray her playfully shy exuberance - they are wracked by uncertainty about the future of a man who has been in a United States prison for five years this February.

FILM-US/IRAQ: Heart of Darkness

Midland, a small city in the heart of the west Texas oil country, is proud to be known as the childhood home of the U.S. president and commander-in-chief, George W. Bush.

THEATRE-US: Play Shows West’s Moral Failures in Rwanda

As the 1994 genocide in Rwanda slips into the dark hole of history, the U.S. playwright J.T. Rogers's "The Overwhelming" reminds one how it happened and how both the "moral", the complicit and the cynical in the West were present in the killing fields.

CUBA: Film Frenzy

María Martínez and her husband go home every evening after participating in a ritual that is repeated every December, when the Cuban capital hosts the New Latin American Film Festival, an audiovisual feast that revolutionises the city’s routine for two weeks every year.

DEVELOPMENT-TANZANIA: Tackling Corruption Through Song

Wailing into the microphone and feigning an exaggerated limp, singer Tominem pleaded with corruption-weary Tanzanians in the audience to assert their rights when fighting graft.

RIGHTS-CHILE: Workers’ Massacre More Relevant Than Ever 100 Years On

Dec. 21 will be the 100th anniversary of a massacre of thousands of striking workers of the then-flourishing saltpetre industry in northern Chile, carried out by military troops on the order of the government, an event known as the massacre of the Santa María de Iquique school.

BRAZIL: Modelling Change in the Favelas

When police in Brazil discovered an enormous detailed scale model of the Pereirão favela, they were going to destroy it because they thought it was part of a drug trafficking gang’s plan to invade a nearby neighbourhood. Ten years later, portions of the miniature reproduction built by children have travelled around the world to art exhibits and festivals.

MIGRATION-GERMANY: Women in a New Country Draw Together

"You try to adapt, but you become like a mute person," said Teresa, who was born in Colombia and has lived in Germany for over 20 years, describing what it feels like to be an immigrant.

FILM-ARGENTINA: Local Characters Get All the Parts

"I’d like to be offered the role of a madwoman some day, or of a vicious person, just out of curiosity, because I’m really not like that at all," says Carmen Drive, a 56-year-old Argentine homemaker who has already acted in 18 movies without ever having set foot outside her home town, population 30,000.

THEATRE: In the Creeks of the Niger Delta

Twelve years ago, over the protests of human rights groups worldwide, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight Ogoni minority and environmental rights activists in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region were murdered by the military regime of the late General Sani Abacha.

CULTURE-CHINA: Lust, Caution – Politically Incorrect Box Office Grosser

At bookstores and university hallways, intellectuals here have been engaging in nothing less than ideological ‘struggle sessions,’ dissecting Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s erotically-charged and award winning film ‘Lust, Caution’.

Q&A: "Displacement Is a State of Mind"

Madeleine Thien is the Canadian-born daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants. She launched her writing career with a widely acclaimed short story collection called "Simple Recipes" in 2001. Thien's recently released first novel, "Certainty", is about the legacies of loss, displacement from war and how human beings deal with trauma. She recently spoke with IPS correspondent Am Johal.

FILM: A Lawyer Almost as Notorious as His Clients

"That guy is me." With this flash of recognition, 30-year-old Jacques Vergès knew he had finally found his calling: the law.

THEATRE-US: Strong Women Storm Broadway

New York stages are filled with strong women these days, and while it might be expected in serious drama, they are also asserting themselves forcefully in musicals and classic comedy - forms that speak to the popular culture.