/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-U.S.: Documentary Airs Sierra Leoneans’ Tales of Survival

A new documentary eloquently describes the psychological and physical wounds inflicted during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war and chronicles the heroism with which survivors of countless horrors are slowly rebuilding their lives - generally with little or no help from the cash-strapped government.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-SOUTH AFRICA: Cultivating New Talents

In South Africa, where half the population cannot read, a local short story competition has shown that with the right initiatives there is still abundant writing talent.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-EAST TIMOR: Catharsis Unfolds in Replay of Painful History

Augostino da Costa Cabral's eyes were wide open, and his smile seemed unbreakable. But he could not sit still, and was shifting nervously in his seat on the gymnasium floor.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/TV-ARGENTINA: Women of Flesh and Blood

The soap operas, cooking programmes and gossip shows about the rich and famous that long dominated afternoon television programming in Argentina and targeted the female audience are giving way to programmes that address women's real concerns and interests.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-COSTA RICA: Artists Join Forces with Nature

Culture joins hands with the environment in the month-long Mother Earth Festival in Costa Rica, which for the sixth consecutive year is using poetry, photography, music, theatre and film to raise public awareness about the country's environmental problems.

LITERATURE-SOUTH ASIA: Exiled Writer Seeks New Home

The suspicious eyes of the security guards outside a suite in the Great Eastern Hotel in this eastern India metropolis confirm Taslima Nasrin is in.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-JAMAICA: Carib-Far East Fusion Pioneer Dies, Influence Lives On

In the 1970s, when just about every Jamaican musician was following in Bob Marley's footsteps and making rhythm-based reggae, Augustus Pablo sought to take the music a step further by incorporating sounds from the Far East.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-LATAM: Impoverished Budgets, Wealth of Ideas

The advance of digital technology in filmmaking is a boon for filmmakers in the developing countries of Latin America, where the dearth of financial resources is a major obstacle that prevents their wide range of ideas for stories and images from reaching the big screen.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-MIDDLE EAST: Arab Hospitality Runs Deep

"Generosity hides all defects," says old Arab saying. And generosity is what pervades every Arab home throughout the Middle East.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MEDIA-KENYA: New Website Showing the Work of Famous Cartoonists

Where can you see the chairman of the Kenya Constitutional Review Commission, Professor Yash Pal Ghai, begging on a dirty sidewalk alongside other homeless down and outs? Or President Daniel arap Moi receiving an award for Best Dictator at the Kenya Oscar Awards?

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/THEATRE-ZIMBABWE: Bridging Differences

William Shakespeare's play 'Romeo and Juliet' is being used as a way of improving race relations in Zimbabwe.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-VENEZUELA: Baseball Takes a Swing at Big Screen

A documentary on the birth and first 50 years of baseball in Venezuela pays a debt owed by the local film industry, which has long ignored this national passion.

LITERATURE-COLOMBIA: New Authors a Long Way From Macondo

A new generation of Colombian writers is proving difficult to categorise, but one common denominator is their distancing from the "magical realism" and the town of Macondo created by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-COTE D’IVOIRE: Reaching Children

The halls of the Palais des Congres at the Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan are filled with thousands of young children.

ARTS-LEBANON: Calamity Turns a Taxi Driver into an Artist

For this taxi driver life began with a heart attack at 55. Forced to stay home after what had seemed like a lifetime on the roads, Elias Badawi discovered the artist in him.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-MERCOSUR: War of the Triple Alliance, Literary Atonement

Mercosur (Southern Common Market) now has a regionally integrated work of literature, a collective effort about a historic tragedy involving Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the four countries of the decade-old trade bloc.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CHINA: Despite Ban, Youngsters Rave over Taiwanese TV Series

Shivering from the damp and chilly air in the Beijing underway crossing, Xiao Mei shyly promotes her stock of pirated books displayed on a piece of cloth in front of her.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-CHILE: Comic Book Hero Reborn in First Animated Feature

Mampato, a comic-book hero created in Chile in the 1950s, is the protagonist of the first feature-length animated film made in this South American country, slated to premiere in June in the capital and in six other cities.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-CARIBBEAN: Briton’s Published Tribute: ‘We Heard it First’

After writing books on the lineage of the funk and grunge movements, author Dave Thompson has turned his attention to Caribbean music, which he grew up listening to in England.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-SENEGAL: The French Connection

Over the past fortnight, films put on by the French Cultural Centre (CCF) in Dakar include the French historical drama, La Reine Margot, and Little Senegal.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/THEATRE-PERU: Sartre Helps a Nation Delve into Its Recent Past

The staging in Peru of "Dirty Hands", by French philosopher and writer Jean Paul Sartre, digs into what is perhaps the country's most salient political problem: the conflict between exercising power and upholding moral principles.