/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-KENYA: Khanga Stands The Test of Time

Jamal Omar, an exhibition co-ordinator and education officer with the National Museums of Kenya, has a special attachment to the Khanga, a cloth traditionally worn on the East African coast.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-US: Living the American Nightmare

One of the strangest and saddest products of New York's housing crunch has to be the small colonies of homeless who retreat to the city's dank, rat-infested underground train tunnels in search of shelter.

BOOKS-JAMAICA: The Dancehall Revealed

Norman Stolzoff remembers his first experience of Jamaican music as if it were yesterday. It was 1982 and he had gone with his brother to a Black Uhuru concert in his hometown of San Diego. Eighteen years later, Stolzoff has released the book, 'Wake The Town And Tell The People', which gives an intimate look at Jamaica's dancehalls.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-COLOMBIA: FARC Rebels Reclaim Music and Literature

The cultural movement rooted in the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has gathered strength over the last year and a half, alongside the fits and starts of peace negotiations between the rebels and the government.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/LITERATURE-COSTA RICA: Spanish Author Inspires Culture of Peace

Spain's Nobel Prize-winning writer Camilo José Cela is to promote the culture of peace in Costa Rica through a joint project of the government and civil society groups.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-BRAZIL: Darlene, Three Husbands and Poverty

The story of a woman with three husbands, living in the poor, drought-stricken interior of northeastern Brazil, plays out on the big screen, feeding hopes this year of international box-office success and awards for this Brazilian-made movie.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILMS-ZIMBABWE: Festival Gives a Taste of the Best in Movie-Making

Zimbabwe hosts its third annual International Film Festival (ZIFF) this month giving local residents a taste of the best in movie-making worldwide.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CINEMA-AFRICA: A Paris Theatre Bets on African Movies

African movies will find a permanent outlet in France, thanks to an initiative of one cinema in Paris. Beginning in October, the Sept Parnassiens cinema will attempt to raise the profile of African movies in France by reserving its screen exclusively for films from that continent.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/SPORTS-NEPAL: Skiing Down the World’s Highest Peak

For Davo Karnicar, reaching the summit of the world's highest mountain this autumn, will be a job only half done.

CULTURE-ARGENTINA: Cinematic Invasion of the Malvinas/Falklands

A new Argentine film, a blend of reality and fiction, is causing a stir after being filmed under- cover in the Malvinas/Falkland Islands - and because its plot suggests that Argentina can recover this disputed territory through sex.

CUISINE-ARGENTINA: The Kitchen, A Place to Kindle Hope

For many Argentineans, the kitchen has become a place to fight the feelings of discouragement and dejection that rising unemployment and falling wages have generated throughout society.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ PHOTOGRAPHY-IRAN: Rediscovering The Homeland

Imagine leaving your native land as a teenager, only to return 20 years later, to discover that every aspect of your country's life is now somehow informed by religion.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ MUSIC-JAMAICA: In Search of the Marley Glory Days

There was a time when Jamaica's songwriters ranked among the best in the world. But in the last 20 years, the country that produced Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff and Bob Andy, has experienced a frightening slump in penmanship, a slide some feel needs to be urgently addressed.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ MUSIC-NIGERIA: Afrobeat Continues to Soar

Three years after the death, from AIDS related complications, of maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Afrobeat - the music he pioneered - continues to spread and influence devotees nationally and internationally.

CULTURE-ASIA: Big Tobacco Smokescreen Spawns New Lifestyle Among Women

In Sri Lanka, discotheques have become the latest hunting ground for a tobacco multinational in search of promising clients.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ FILM-CARIBBEAN: Industry Struggles against Economic Tide

The Caribbean Basin's film industry has been hard hit by the global financial crisis and suffers distribution problems, but continues its healthy production of movies in Spanish, English, French and Creole - while maintaining a regional identity.

FILM-VIETNAM: Movie Industry Does Poorly at the Box Office

It used to be that the Co Loa film studios were practically the heart of a vibrant industry that pumped out as many as 80 documentaries and 20 feature films a year.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ARCHITECTURE-CUBA: If the Walls Could Speak

Fragments of what were once considered the most beautiful neo-classical arcades in the Cuban capital have been uncovered, appearing unexpectedly inside the walls of the Fine Arts Palace during reconstruction work.

MUSIC-JAMAICA: The Rebirth of Ska

Ten years ago when Derrick Morgan stepped on stage at a London club, he was partially blind and on the verge of obscurity. When he walked off after a spellbinding two-hour set, the Ska legend was reborn.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-BENIN: Art Moves To The Streets To Expose The Ills Of African Societies

A moving exhibition of paintings, aimed at exposing the ills of African societies, is on display here, organised by three young artists from Benin.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ FILM-US: Surviving Black Panthers Tell Their Own Story

Ruthlessly crushed by the police and maligned by the white press, the Black Panthers remain one of the most misunderstood groups to emerge from the 1960s' civil rights struggles in the United States.