/ARTS WEEKLY/GERMANY: A Season for Angry Literature

Award-winning author-journalist from Moscow Anna Politkovskaja was not among the scores of Russian writers seen moving about the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, which this year focused on contemporary Russian literature.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-VIETNAM: Antiques Found, Then Go Missing

-As archaeologists excavate ancient artifacts and salvage antiques from old shipwrecks along Vietnam's coast, cultural officials are busy trying to prevent the trafficking of these precious finds.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CUBA: Camaguey’s Enchanted House of Art

Few cities in Cuba boast a house like that of artists Ileana Sánchez and Joel Jover, which is open all day to local and foreign visitors, and does triple duty - as an art gallery, studio/workshop and home.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE: Caribbean Comedy Celebrated on Canadian TV

A television sitcom centred on Canada's Caribbean community that started very small has grown so large that it recently picked up two nominations for Gemini Awards, Canada's version of the Emmys.

SPORTS-ARGENTINA: Display of Maradona’s Glory Years to Tour World

A travelling museum dedicated to Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, considered by many to be the best footballer of all time, will soon begin to tour the world.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ARTS: "Fast Food Nation" Author Turns Critical Eye on Prisons

Why is author Eric Schlosser hanging around Swedish prisons? Well, drugs, black market labor, pornography, and fast food can all be ruled out. He's already written about those subjects.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ FILM-PARAGUAY: Not the Normal Big Screen Fare

Feature-length and short films from 22 countries are in the line-up for Paraguay's international film festival, one of the very few opportunities in this country to see something besides Hollywood blockbusters, which fill the big screens the rest of the year.

/ARTS WEEKLY/SPORT: In India, It's Cricket versus Hockey

Sports in India these days is a matter of which game can capture not just the eye of fans but sponsorships - gentlemanly cricket favoured by the country's anglicised elite, or the rough and tumble of field hockey that is dominated by tribals and players from deprived social backgrounds.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ LITERATURE: From Chile’s McOndo to Mexico’s Manifesto

The literary movements of Chile and Mexico have been at the vanguard of Latin American literature since 1996, according to the participants in "Amón Literario", a gathering in Costa Rica of 35 writers from Latin America and Spain.

CULTURE-ZAMBIA: Reality Show Star Under Fire from Media, Women’s Groups

Now in the saddle of 'stardom', Cherise Makubale is finding that perhaps the 106 days she spent in the 'Big Brother Africa House' in South Africa, and the100,000-U.S.-dollar prize was easy pickings compared to the scrutiny her private life is getting now.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ HISTORY-VENEZUELA: A Realist in Bolivar’s Shadow

María Antonia Bolívar, the "odd" sister of South American Liberator Simón Bolívar has been rescued from the archives of history by Venezuelan researcher Inés Quintero, whose new book reveals how the "realist" opposed her brother's heroic exploits and passionately defended the Spanish Crown.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ MUSIC-COLOMBIA: Song from Nature’s Depths

The song of the humpbacked whales on their trek from Antarctica to Colombia's Pacific coast is melded with the voice of mezzo-soprano Martha Senn in the seven-movement cantata "Pacificanto", premiered 35 metres underground.

/ARTS WEEKLY/SPORT: For Pacific, Rules Blunt Rugby Challenge

The three South Pacific nations leading the islander challenge at the Rugby World Cup, which kicks off here Friday, are blaming the International Rugby Board (IRB) for depleting their sides - a charge so heated that Pacific leaders included it into the political communiqué of their August meeting.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM: Balancing Wildlife Conservation with Human Survival

This year's Toronto International Environmental Film and Video Festival explores how African environmental and conservation issues, such as the bush meat trade, are deeply intertwined with the continent's cultural and political realities.

MUSIC-ARGENTINA: Gardel and the Raging Debate on His Origins

Tango icon Carlos Gardel smiles down from murals painted all over the historic neighbourhood of Abasto in the Argentine capital, and from photos on the walls of the restaurant that carries his name, on Gardel street, as if he were enjoying the raging debate on the mysteries surrounding his life.

INDIA: Conviction Offers Peek into Links Between Film, Crime

The nexus between India's glitzy, multi-billion-dollar film industry and the underworld was on display once again after a movie financier was convicted this week by a special court that handles organised crime.

CULTURE: South African Wins the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature

The award of this year's Nobel Prize for literature to the South African novelist and linguist John Maxwell Coetzee is the cherry on top for the country's writers this year.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: Producer Pioneered Reggae Forerunner, ‘Rocksteady’

When Jamaican record producer Kenneth Khouri died of heart failure here Sep. 20, aged 86, there was little mention of his passing in the local media. Indeed, it was three days later that his death was first reported.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BRITAIN: First of Asian Pop is Now a Touching Memory

If you are old enough, or let us say you were a youngster from South Asia a while back, you would know that first of the Asian pops.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ MUSIC-BRAZIL: The Weight of a Legacy

Maria Rita released her first album at age 26, unlike other singers and musicians with famous parents who had records on the market when they were still practically adolescents.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ARGENTINA: Big Orchestra, Little Musicians

The children squirm and laugh until the instructor counts to three. Then they turn their attention to the musical score in front of them and, with their cellos held just so, they begin to play a few bars of music, repeating it over and over again - just like professional musicians do.