/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-NEPAL: Local Cinema Slowly Replacing India’s Bollywood

Once Indian cinema enthusiasts, Nepali film watchers are now getting keen about home-made productions as the local film industry tunes into popular tastes, making the most of government tax breaks and digital technology.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/LITERATURE-AFRICA: Wole Soyinka Speaks His Mind

The conference room was packed to bursting. Yet more and more people were determined to squeeze in, tripping over a maze of camera cables and microphone leads. The assorted journalists, usually known for their cynicism, gazed at the old man on the platform with something akin to awe.

/CORRECTED REPEAT/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-LATAM: Chavela Vargas: Art Is in Decline

Latin American chanteuse Chavela Vargas, muse of film director Pedro Almodóvar and of singer-songwriter Joaquín Sabina, both of Spain, says at age 81 that performing in the new millennium has fallen into decadence.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/THEATRE: Uruguayan Playwright Awarded for Three-Act Farce on Pinochet

Uruguayan playwright Walter Acosta's, 'The Scorpion and the Opossum', which won Cuba's House of the Americas theatre prize last week, was inspired by the 503 days former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet spent under house arrest in London.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-LATAM: Chavela Vargas: My Art Is in Decline

Latin American chanteuse Chavela Vargas, muse of film director Pedro Almodóvar and of singer-songwriter Joaquín Sabina, both of Spain, says at age 81 that performing in the new millennium has fallen into decadence.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-JAMAICA: More Marleys Seek Fame in Music Industry

Bob Marley would have been 56 years old on Feb. 6, and with celebrations taking place from Kingston to Tokyo, Stephen and Damian - two of his rumoured 15 children - are preparing to make their mark in the industry he dominated.

/CORRECTED REPEATLITERATURE: African Women Writers Ponder Literary Future With Pride, Fear

African women authors share mixed feelings about their publishing success here in the United States and abroad, but they do agree on one thing - women in Africa are in dire straits and, given their circumstances, the chance to tell their stories to the world is in jeopardy.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-CUBA: Havana Fair Awakens Reader Anxieties, Appetites

The Havana International Book Fair has become one of the rare opportunities for Cubans to connect with the island's own literary production and a small sampling of what is being published in the rest of the world.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/LITERATURE-CHILE: ‘Anti-Poet’ Navigates Internet toward Nobel Prize

"Anti-poetry" has made its way to the Internet, thanks to the University of Chile's launching of a website dedicated to Nicanor Parra, who for the third time is in the running for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-VENEZUELA: Story of Bolivar’s Romance a Rare Box Office Hit

Venezuelan audiences have turned out in droves to see a new historical film set against the backdrop of the South American independence movements and featuring a romance involving Latin American liberation fighter Simón Bolívar.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-COLOMBIA: Memories of the Present

A 20-year-old episode from Colombia's ongoing civil conflict is the focus of a new film, 'La toma de la embajada' (Embassy Takeover). The film, by director Ciro Durán, revives circumstances that are in many ways re-enacted today, with as much dramatic flare, though by different actors on other sets.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-INDONESIA: Too Many Child Singers Puts Industry Off-Key

Sherina Munaf is only 10 years old, but she is already among the most popular personalities in Indonesia.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-AFRICA: Beads – a Showcase of Africa’s Heritage

In 1970, African Heritage opened their doors as the continent's first Pan African jewellery and craft shop. From simple beginnings, it is now the largest, most organised craft organisation on the African continent.

MUSIC-TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: He Isn’t Too Young to Soca Now

When in 1986, 11-year-old Machel Montano stood among the giants of the calypso world, and sang his tune 'Too Young to Soca' many dismissed him as a passing child wonder.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/LITERATURE-CHILE: Neruda’s Unrequited Love

The nearly unknown story of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's frustrated romance with Albertina Azócar, muse for many of his love poems, has finally reached the public light in two lavish volumes, released here this week.

/ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-AFRICA: Boost For Women Directors

'Mama Africa', a dynamic six-pack of short films by African women, is to be released in Europe at the Rotterdam Film Festival at the end of January.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ARTS-CUBA: Lennon Takes a Seat in Havana Park

A statue of John Lennon graces a centrally located park of the Cuban capital as a sort of unusual attraction in a country where, his band, The Beatles, was once banned.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-ARGENTINA: Fito Paez, an Artist in Decline, Nominated for Grammy

Argentina will have a presence at the next Grammy awards through rock musician Fito Páez, who paradoxically finds himself receiving international awards just as he is losing public and critical approval in his own country.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC: Kenya Falls For Shaggy

"Now she got booty!" shouts the MC. To a driving soukous beat, a light-skinned girl in a silver satin bra top, matching mini and white lacy knickers slowly grinds her hips against her imaginary lover. The 10,000-strong crowd cheer in appreciation.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-US: Make Smart Policy, Not War

It is an open secret that the United States is taking a serious beating in its so-called war on drugs. The jails have never been more overcrowded, and by all accounts, no significant dent has been made in the number of users.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE: Carnival Beset by Piracy and Other Woes

Trinidad and Tobago is getting ready for its annual carnival celebrations amid complaints by artistes of widespread acts of piracy, copyright infringement and lack of air play for their material.