/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM: “Viva Cuba!” Vies for Oscar Nomination

A children's movie exploring the themes of friendship, intolerance and emigration has been chosen as Cuba's entry for an Oscar nomination in the best foreign language film category at next year's Academy Awards.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-INDIA: Anthem Against Poverty from ‘Mozart of Madras’

If ever music could wipe poverty off the face of the earth, then India's internationally rated musical genius, A. R. Rahman's latest composition, "Pray for My Brother", could do a job the United Nations dearly wants to see happen.

DEVELOPMENT: Now an Africa Concert Speaks Out

An all-Africa concert on making poverty history will seek to speak - or sing - the language of aid concerts, but with an African voice.

FILM: Haiti Teeters on the Brink

The world may be focused on Iraq's Oct. 15 elections, but an equally critical vote will soon take place in the first country in the Americas after the United States to declare its independence.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ECOTOURISM: Maoris Reap Benefits of Past Conservation

To Maoris conservation of land and water has been at the forefront of their existence and today they are capitalising on the carefully nurtured resource and gaining livelihoods through eco-tourism.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-ARGENTINA: Fighting Chagas’ Disease, Camera in Hand

"I met so many people suffering from this disease, people who are used to living a hard life, to suffering in silence, who don't complain or demand that more attention be paid to this problem," said Argentine filmmaker Ricardo Preve.

/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE-BRAZIL: Shining the Spotlight on Science – Literally

Arte Ciência no Palco (Art and Science on Stage) is a unique Brazilian theatre group devoted exclusively to scientific themes, as a means of highlighting the fight for knowledge as one of the most dramatic battles in human history.

MEXICO: Wal-Mart’s Plans for Indigenous Areas Under Fire

The U.S.-based retail giant Wal-Mart, which last year opened a store near the ancient Teotihuacan pyramids of Mexico despite loud protests from local activists and small businesses, is now seeking a repeat of its earlier victory, this time in two heavily indigenous areas. But local opponents are set for a pitched battle.

BRAZIL: Awakening the Dreams of Young Slum Dwellers

Left blind in one eye by a bullet wound, 18-year-old Rosinaldo Inaldo admits that he used to be violent, but says he now dreams of becoming a singer of traditional songs from northeastern Brazil like the "axé" and "frevo".

VENEZUELA: World Youth Fest – Activism and Celebration

A lengthy statement against "U.S. imperialism" was adopted at the close of the 16th World Youth and Students Festival, which drew thousands of young people from more than 100 countries to Venezuela over the past week.

VENEZUELA: World Festival Draws 15,000 Young Activists

Over 15,000 young people from 144 countries around the globe have gathered in Venezuela for eight days of seminars, workshops and an "anti-imperialist tribunal", along with a healthy dose of music and dance, as part of the 16th World Youth and Students Festival.

GERMANY: The Blind Lead the Way to a Unique Food Experience

"It's like entering a completely different world, suddenly everything in your own world just disappears," says Ralf Mechlinski, manager of the world's first restaurant staffed entirely by the blind and visually impaired, where patrons are invited to experience what it is like to live without sight.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-MEXICO: Organ Grinders Proud of Century-Old Trade

Alfonso, a 35-year-old organ grinder, is dressed like the revolutionaries who fought in Mexico a century ago.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-CUBA: Cienfuegos – Now a World Heritage Site

The urban historic centre of Cienfuegos, known in Cuba as the "Pearl of the South", has become the first city founded in the 19th century to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List of cultural sites.

/ARTS WEEKLY/IRAN-THEATRE: Traditional Ta’zieh Play Pokes at Regime

By the time it was banned, a week before the Aug. 6 swearing in of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as President of Iran, a bold Ta'zieh (traditional tragedy theatre) on the 1997 serial assassinations of several leading dissident intellectuals, had already had a month-long run.

RIGHTS: Czechs Want a Check on Govt

Human rights groups in the Czech Republic have said the president should call for the resignation of the prime minister and interior minister over recent police action that they say was "more brutal" than anything under the repressive communist regimes of the past.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILMS: Asian Cinema Gets Raunchy but With a Cause

If there is a case for saying that Asian - including traditionally conservative Arab cinema - is going the raunchy way, there is equally another one that argues that sexuality is now being examined by regional filmmakers in a more sensitive way than ever before.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: The Poetic Madness of a Garbage Dump Dweller

"I'm an outcast, but I won't change the way I am, I won't give in. I'm Estamira, and that's that."

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-TIBET: ‘Masalla’ Music Threatens Cultural Purity

For 27-year-old Jamyang, it was a clash of cultures - Tibetan 'thangka' (cloth) paintings versus Bollywood and Western rock and roll. In the end, the latter won the day when he chucked his 'thangka' paintbrushes for an electric guitar and formed a rock band that belted out Tibetan freedom songs and popular Hindi love tunes.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: Three Blind Sisters Born To Sing

The Brazilian documentary "Born to Be Blind" tells the extraordinary story of three sisters who overcome almost inconceivable adversity to achieve a certain measure of fame in the second half-century of their lives - and yet are still not able to fully escape the poverty and precariousness that has marked their entire existence.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BOOKS: Sihanouk, Monarch and More

Cambodia's retired King Norodom Sihanouk gets special mention in an on-line publication that dabbles in news about the purveyors of chaos.