MUSIC-CUBA: Stars’ Solidarity Recording to Benefit Schools

Cuba's music schools, hard hit by the island's decade-long economic crisis, are soon to get a boost from Spain's Joan Manuel Serrat, Argentine Fito Pßez and Cuba's own Pablo Milanis, who have joined forces with other Spanish-language musicians in a solidarity recording project.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-VIETNAM: Caught Between ‘Progress’ and Cultural Finds

Hanoi authorities are unsettled: Should they allow archeologists to go on digging the site of an ambitious building project to continue to have a look at the Vietnamese capital's glorious past?

POETRY-COLOMBIA: The Word as Panacea to Drug Stigma

Some 70 poets from 46 countries are gathering in Colombia to take part in the tenth International Poetry Festival of Medellin, which is taking place the serious economic difficulties confronting the organising committee and social and political problems plaguing the nation.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/LITERATURE-ANGOLA: Disillusioned with a Revolution

Angola's independence unleashes corruption and a lucrative business - in the guise of a sect that takes advantage of the gullibility and desire for mysticism of the nation's people - in the latest novel by Angolan writer, Pepetela.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-JAMAICA: Ziggy Marley Ready to Quit the Business?

There comes a time when an artist gets tired of the grind of touring and recording. That's exactly how Ziggy Marley feels as he prepares to hit the road with his siblings.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/EXHIBITION: US, African Artists in Transatlantic Dialogue

The "Transatlantic Dialogue: Contemporary Art In and Out of Africa" exhibition, which opened here earlier this month, highlights the exchange of ideas between contemporary African artists who have lived or worked in the West and modern African-American artists who have visited Africa.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/THEATRE-CENTRAL AMERICA: Puppets as Relief from Poverty

Fernando Thiel, an Argentine actor who has walked the lengths of Central America with his imagination-filled theatre on his back, brings art to children as a form of therapy to fight the emotional burdens of poverty and abandonment.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-JAMAICA: Mento Bands Provide a Taste of the Past

With their straw hats, banjos and assorted household implements used as musical instruments, mento bands are a fixture on the country's tourist scene. But the folksy flavour of mento has outlived its charm, at least in mainstream Jamaican life.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-VENEZUELA: Gold-mining Nightmare is Box Office Ticket

A new Venezuelan film aspires to overcome the inertia of the nation's movie market by revealing a world that exists beyond reality, inhabited by delusional people who make their own laws amid an ecosystem devastated because of its golden wealth.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ART-SPAIN: 500 Years in Seven Digitally Created Frescoes

Five centuries of Spanish history are summarised in seven large frescoes that were created using new digital techniques, an encounter between tradition and modernity on display in the town of San Lorenzo del Escorial, a community outside the Spanish capital.

LITERATURE-ARGENTINA: Sabato Novel Hits Internet Before Print

Argentine writer Ernesto Sábato's newest work, "La Resistencia," appeared on the Internet, free of charge, as part of an unprecedented experiment that will allow the publishers to study the literary market before the print version of the book goes on sale.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-MEXICO: Sundays in the Zocalo Bring Art, Music to All

Mexico City's "Zócalo", the huge central square also known as the "Plaza de la Constitucion", has become the centre of a major cultural effort by the centre-left city government designed to bring art, music and films to the people.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-JAMAICA: Wailing Souls Makes Impressive Come-back

Thirty years ago when roots reggae began taking shape in the Kingston inner-city community of Trench Town, the Wailing Souls were just one of many budding groups singing praise to Haile Selassie I, the Rastafarian God. They are still doing that, and their audience has multiplied ten-fold.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/SPORTS-NEPAL: Fastest Climb to the Top of the World

Dressed in a purple jacket, a mud-colored cap on his head and wearing a harness on which is fixed a light backpack, Babu Chiri Sherpa moves swiftly over the rocky glacial debris strewn on the ground here some 5,400 metres above sea level.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-CANADA: Michael Ondaatje Serves Up Another Thoughtful Novel

Meeting the Sri-Lanka born and Canada- based author Michael Ondaatje as I once did decades ago while taking one of his English courses at York University in Toronto, I encountered a quiet and distant instructor who also has an obsession for detail and research in his fiction.

/CORRECTED REPEAT/ LITERATURE-LATAM: Juan Rulfo’s Illuminating Love Letters

The letters young Juan Rulfo wrote to his only love, a girl who became a woman and was to him the breath of the hills, revealed the makings of one of the major writers of the 20th century.

LITERATURE-LATAM: Juan Rulfo’s Illuminating Love Letters

The letters young Juan Rulfo wrote to his only love, a girl who became a woman and was to him the breath of the hills, revealed the makings of one of the major writers of the 20th century.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ THEATRE-COSTA RICA: Shakespeare and Garcia Lorca a Hit with Youth

William Shakespeare and Federico García Lorca are giving Costa Rican theatre owners who think only comedies can be profitable a run for their money.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ HISTORY-CUBA: Picasso’s Unknown Family in the Caribbean

Pablo Picasso died in 1973 never having visited Cuba and without ever knowing that his grandfather had left him with relatives on the island - Afro-Cubans and mestizos - who were also unaware they were related to the great Spanish painter.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-ASIA: Fashion with Asian Fusion

A tube top inspired by the traditional Chinese garment cheongsam, a micro-mini sari, or a batik dress? These are examples of how some Asian designers have fused eastern and western concepts to create an Asian fashion identity.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-US: Can Low-Income Children Survive the Savage Inequalities?

Jonathan Kozol is an education Titan. A former school teacher in a mostly-black Dorchester school in Boston, Massachusetts, Kozol has been on the front line of US education for decades.