MUSIC-BRAZIL: Rio Turns into Capital of Aging Rock ‘n’ Roll

The third Rock in Rio festival, which is expected to attract more than 1.5 million people over seven days of concerts, will turn this Brazilian city into the international capital of young people's music beginning Friday, but its overriding tone seems to be nostalgia for older rock.

TELEVISION-COLOMBIA: Show’s ‘Ugly’ Heroine Attracts Record Audiences

A Colombian soap opera maintains its grip on the country's largest television audience, achieved by an unattractive heroine who makes her appearance after the daily dose of violence and football on the evening news programmes, which generally follow talk shows in which beautiful women share gossip about the rich and famous.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-MEXICO: Indigenous Choir Sings for Peace

Indigenous singers from a southern Mexican region, where in 1997 members of a paramilitary squad killed 45 churchgoers, have united their voices in chorus, recording an album that holds their denunciations and laments of the past, and proposals for a peaceful future.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/PHILIPPINES: Film Tackles Story of a Different Sex Slave

On a quiet day at home in the Philippine capital, 73-year-old Walterina turns on the television and catches the elderly Rosa Henson speaking about her sexual enslavement by occupying Japanese soldiers more than five decades ago.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ ART-BRAZIL: Book Series Shows Off 500 Years of Art

The Rediscovery Exhibition, which celebrated the 500 years since the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, allowed the country to take in the historic panorama of its plastic arts and led to the publication of a 13-book set that provides ongoing access to the rich collection of artworks.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ ARCHITECTURE-VENEZUELA: A University Campus for Humanity

The University City in the Venezuelan capital is on of the three modern urban developments declared as a Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Scientific, Cultural and Educational Organisation (UNESCO), a distinction granted on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the site's creator, architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ MUSIC-JAMAICA: From Selassie to Christ – The Judy Mowatt Journey

Judy Mowatt is no stranger to change. As a member of the I-Three, she toured the world during the 1970s doing back-up vocals for reggae singer Bob Marley. In the 1990s, she had a life-changing experience and became a born-again Christian. Now, she's celebrating her conversion to Christianity with a new album.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ LITERATURE-CHINA: To Move Forward, A Look Back at the Classics

Almost a century ago, Chinese literature underwent a profound revolution that resulted in the demise of the 'wenyan' or the archaic Chinese in written form and the use of the 'baihua' (vernacular) in prose and poetry.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/EXHIBITION-CUBA: Havana Biennial Opens Doors to the Diaspora

An extensive collection of Cuban art from the last four decades, including works by artists in exile, can be seen for the first time in this country among the more than 20 expositions that make up the Seventh Biennial of Havana.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-US: Harlem’s Golden Age Remembered

It was the "Harlem of honey and chocolate and caramel and rum and vinegar and lemon and lime and gall", the poet Langston Hughes wrote of the golden age known as the Black Renaissance.

BOOKS-CENTRAL AMERICA: Real-Life Family Feud Portrayed in New Novel

Central American literature is richer for the publication of a fictionalised version of San Esteban's true story. This ranching village, located in northeast Honduras, suffered a decade of killings that were committed by members of two warring families.

RELIGION-INDIA: Shrine Remains Symbol of Happy Coexistence of All Faiths

The giant arched gate of the shrine stands at the head of a bustling bazaar lane in this small town in north-western India. Beggar boys and girls badger pilgrims for alms in the name of the saint. The rich jostle with the poor, as men and women, young and old, walk through the sprawling medieval mausoleum.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/TELEVISION-ZAMBIA: A Soap of Her Own

Zambia's first local soap opera, launched last week, is being hailed as a resounding success, with audiences comparing it to Western favourites such as Dallas, Falcon Crest and the Yellow Rose in Texas.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ART-PERU: Prisoners’ Works Express Desperate Desire for Freedom

The right to create beauty forms part of the need for freedom shared by all human beings, says art critic Alfonso Carrera regarding two expositions of works by women and men being held in the Peruvian capital's prisons.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-BRAZIL: The Samurai Who Denied Defeat

The current Brazilian stereotype of the stubborn Japanese immigrant has its roots in a bloody incident, which investigative journalist Fernando Morais is attempting to rescue from the mists of time.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-INDIA: ‘Secular’ Intellectual Movement to Take on BJP’s Hindu Nationalism

A group of leading Indian academics who are sharply critical of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJPs) Hindu nationalist ideology, are preparing to battle this with their own 'secular' counter-movement.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-US: National Geographic Showcases its Women Photographers

The mosaic of images ranging from the beauty of a landscape to the devastation of war, gives no clue to the uniqueness of the National Geographic Society's latest publication.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-IRAN: The Blackboard Of Knowledge

Iranian director, Samira Makmalbaf, at the tender age of 17, announced her arrival on the world stage with the audacious debut film titled 'The Apple'. The piece was a gentle, but searing attack on the evils of fundamentalism.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CINEMA-ARGENTINA: Filmmaking Renaissance Amid Tough Financial Straits

Despite - or because of - its economic difficulties, the Argentine filmmaking industry is enjoying a boom, in terms of the quantity of the movies produced and the quality of some, as well as the renewed enthusiasm among the movie-going public for home-grown productions.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-CUBA: Spanish-Language US Movies Head to Havana Festival

A series of movies made by Spanish-speaking directors from the United States will compete for audiences at the International Festival of New Latin American Film, to be held in the Cuban capital Dec. 5 - 15.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-NEPAL: Festival to Show Tough Life in Beautiful Himalayan Hamlets

Three years ago, a caravan of 200 mountain porters, 150 yaks and a 15-member film crew, hiked to a remote human settlement in the Nepal Himalaya.