MEXICO: Using Rock to Get Out the Young Vote

"We all complain. But how many of us vote? If you don't vote: shut up. Don't let anyone else decide for you on July 2." With this slogan, printed on billboards and signs with the image of famous actors, rock stars and models, the Tu Rock Es Votar campaign is trying to encourage young people in Mexico to take part in the coming presidential elections.

ARGENTINA: Women Air Society’s Dirty Laundry in Art Exhibit

A group of female prostitutes in Buenos Aires is using art to lay bare their situation - that is, the state and societal abuse they endure - to the public.

CUBA: Soap Opera Spotlights Sexual Diversity

"La cara oculta de la luna" (The Dark Side of the Moon) - the latest soap opera to be beamed into thousands of Cuban homes - will forever be remembered as triggering unprecedented social debate on sexual diversity and homophobia in the country.

CULTURE-ITALY: Eco-Fashions Find a Place in Shop Windows

Respect for the environment, use of naturally produced fibres and dyes, and recycling of clothing and used objects are the pillars of ecological fashion, which, little by little, seems to be winning over consumers as well as designers in Italy.

CARIBBEAN: Gay, HIV-Positive, and Totally Fearless

When he was diagnosed with HIV in 1989, Godfrey Sealy, a Trinidad and Tobago playwright and activist, pled with Caribbean policy-makers and the general public not to relegate sex issues to the back burner.

THEATRE-CUBA: Havana Carnival Made In USA

At a time when cultural ties between Cuba and the United States are virtually non-existent, a theatre director from New York is here in Havana to present the world première of a musical, set in this Caribbean island. In doing so, he hopes to contribute to "reducing the tensions" between the two countries.

VENEZUELA: Barber ‘Filmmaker’ Finds Success for 100 Dollars

The most sought-after film at hundreds of stands offering pirate DVDs and videos in the Venezuelan capital is a film that had a total production cost of less than 100 dollars.

CUBA: Bringing Theatre to Remote Communities

In a small village surrounded by Cuba's largest wetland, the Korimakao Community Arts Group puts on high quality performances combining theatre, dance, music, lights, sets and costumes, making the same effort they would make if they were in the most prestigious theatre in the capital.

CUBA: TV Serial Stirs Up Social Controversy

A television series which reflects on and portrays sexual behaviours and touches on the question of AIDS has provoked unusual public controversy in Cuba.

ARGENTINA: Rosario, a Child-Friendly City

Children in one of Argentina's biggest cities have been blazing a trail in urban management for the past 10 years. Their participation in government has resulted, for instance, in more green areas, riverside benches, and theme parks that are a magnet for tourists.

ARTS-DRC: Paintings Vent a Nation’s Collective Grief

A Congolese prisoner lies prone, as he is whipped by a police officer under the gaze of his anguished wife - and under the supervision of a Belgian colonial administrator.

POLITICS-US: Is War the Real National Pastime?

In his provocative documentary "Why We Fight", director Eugene Jarecki asks whether Washington's foreign policy is overly preoccupied with the idea of military supremacy, and if the military has become too important in U.S. life.

CHILE: Film Celebrates ‘Swedish Schindler’s’ Gift to Humanity

Filming of "The Black Pimpernel", about Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam, has been taking place in Chile since January. The film focuses on the three months following the Sept. 11, 1973 coup d'etat, when the diplomat saved more than 1,300 people from death or imprisonment.

UZBEKISTAN: ‘Soon, the Aral Sea Will Exist Only in Pictures’

''We cannot save the Aral and soon you will be able to see it only in pictures,'' claims Uzbek painter Rafael Matevosyan, whose work has portrayed Central Asia's shrinking and dying Aral Sea for more than 40 years.

MEDIA-MEXICO: A Larger Piece of the Pie, for the Few

Seven out of 10 Mexican television viewers watch channels belonging to the Televisa consortium, while two out of 10 watch TV Azteca channels. Radio broadcasting stations are concentrated in the hands of 13 business groups.

CULTURE: Film Festival to Drive Home Significance of Water at Global Forum

The fourth World Water Forum will be the first to have its own global film festival, with 80 films from 48 countries, as well as five photo exhibits.

ARTS-HAITI: Young Photographers Lift their Masks

For a moment, it could have been lower Manhattan. Edgy photos hung on bright white walls inside an old brick warehouse. Men and women from around the globe stood captivated by black-and-white images of monsters and people.

INT’L WOMEN’S DAY: Bosnia Rape Victims Forgotten

"When I gave birth to her, I didn't want to see her...but on the second day, when I took her to my breast, I realised that she was the only beauty remaining in this world and so I kept her."

BOOKS-US: Is Organic Boom Healthy for Small Farmers?

Shopping at the Whole Foods supermarket chain in the United States has been called, among other things, inspirational.

CULTURE: A Look Into Bosnian Women’s Lives

Famous for its surprises, the Berlin International Film Festival sprang yet another at the weekend with the announcement that Sarajevo-born Jasmila Zbanic had scooped its top Golden Bear award for her first feature film 'Grbavica' on the legacy of the Balkans war.

RIGHTS: Guantanamo Film Releasing Soon

The Berlin International Film Festival served as a kind of political weather vane in the years when the Cold War was raging and Europe was divided. But when the Berlin Wall fell it lost that role, though never its fascination for the convulsive nature of politics and the conduct of world leaders.