CULTURE-INDIA: Blase About Assembly Line Beauties

When the news came in from the picturesque Mediterranean isle of Cyprus, Nicosia about hot Indian contender Lara Dutta winning the Miss Universe crown earlier this month, not too many in India were surprised.

POETRY-COLOMBIA: Voice of ‘Wayuu’ Echoes Beyond Borders

Cuba's 'Casa de las Américas' poetry prize has allowed Colombian Miguel López to transmit the richness of the indigenous Wayuu culture past its territory in La Guajira and beyond the country's borders.

CULTURE: Britain Celebrates Gypsy Music And Arts

With attacks on gypsy communities on the rise here, there is perhaps no better time to celebrate this most often misunderstood culture. Over the end of May, London's Barbican Theatre is mounting the largest and most ambitious gypsy festival ever to be held in Great Britain.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ FOLKLORE-COSTA RICA: Local Fair Revives

A new fair in this Costa Rican city has set out to salvage forgotten local traditions, showcase local culture, and remind the people of this Central American country of where they came from.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/DANCE-JAMAICA: Garth Fagan: The Dreamer and His Dream

If Garth Fagan had yielded to his father's command, he would have never become a dancer. But he didn't and has forged an impressive career in the arena of creative dance.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-THAILAND: Alienated Generation Speaks Up

Change. The word rules Thailand, a South- east Asian country that has transformed itself from an underdeveloped country to a developing nation in less than two decades.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-BRAZIL: Ambitious Multimedia Anthology Revels in Diversity

Brazil's musical diversity is manifest in the multitude of styles and compositions included in a project that is feeding the public's eager ears, eyes and hearts through a 15-episode TV programme, four compact discs, a book and a website.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/TV-LATAM: For Soap Operas, ‘All Roads Lead to Miami’

Latin America's world-famous soap operas are increasingly being produced in the US city of Miami, where distributors and producers, scriptwriters and actors seem to have found their "promised land."

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/HAITI-CULTURE: Keeping An Old Tradition Alive In The Diaspora

As Haiti enters the 21st-century, Paula Pean is determined to see that the country does not forget a tradition that once defined a way of life -- the telling of folk tales.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-JAMAICA: Music Producer Lee Perry Shows His True Colours

Lee "Scratch" Perry used unconventional methods to record some of reggae music's biggest hits and had a lifestyle to match. This colourful character, who is revered by reggae and punk aficionados alike, is the subject of a new book, "People Funny Boy".

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MEXICO: Struggle to Save Native Languages Goes to Germany

The Mexican Association of Writers in Indigenous Languages will take its struggle to save native tongues - four of which have been lost in the past 25 years and over 100 in the past five centuries - to Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany.

FILMS: Yemenis, Arabs Find ‘Rules of Engagement’ Anything But Engaging

Yemenis and Arabs are furious about a new Hollywood movie which they say portrays them as "bloodthirsty" and "terrorists."

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-JAMAICA: Killing the Black Man’s God

Since its origins in the bowels of Kingston's inner-cities in the early 1930s, the Rastafarian religion has been consistently surrounded by controversy. A new book, written by a Rastafarian, that challenges the sect's longstanding claim that the former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I is God, is certain to add more.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-CUBA: ‘Trova’ Tradition as Strong as Ever

Singer-songwriter Jorge García says Cuba's 'trova' music will always be trova, no matter what people want to call it, in response to some of his colleagues who are attempting to found a musical genre they would instead call 'La Novísima' (The Latest).

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-ZIMBABWE: The Show Must Go On

While the Harare Festival of the Arts (HIFA) opened against the backdrop of a deepening political crisis gripping the country, organisers and participants say they hoped to bring people together in celebrating the arts.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ART-BRAZIL: Show Highlights Artists Excluded for 500 Years

The "Show of the Rediscovery: Brazil + 500" underway in Sao Paulo gathers thousands of works in a complete historical overview of Brazil's visual arts, without the exclusion and violence that marked the recent official celebration of the 500 years since the Portuguese Conquistadors arrived in Brazil.

EXHIBITIONS: Advertising misery: an interview with Sebastiao Salgado

Benetton's Oliviero Toscani uses shocking human images to sell clothes. Sebastiao Salgado photographs human misery to advertise human misery.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CINEMA-TURKEY: Istanbul Film Festival highlights human rights

From the tale of a white, gay, anti- apartheid activist in South Africa to the lives of Vietnam War widows, the Istanbul International Film Festival is highlighting the state of human rights worldwide.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-PERU: Cutting-Edge ‘Technocumbia’ Has a Woman’s Touch

The evolution of popular music in Peru currently stars "technocumbia," a style music experts say expresses a new cultural identity in this multi-ethnic country, as they point to the women at the forefront of this musical movement.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-INDIA: The Moor’s Sigh of Relief

Salman Rushdie was finally back among Midnight's Children this month, setting foot in his homeland 12 years after it so shamefully banned his 'Satanic Verses.'

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MEDIA-UNITED STATES: Top “Censored” Stories Reprinted In Book

A profile of multinational corporations which collaborate with repressive foreign governments in the pursuit of profit, headlines a new book featuring reprints and updates of the top 25 news stories ignored by the mainstream media.