POLITICS-US: Foe of Gay Marriage Led a Double Life

Last week, Pastor Ted Haggard, a leading opponent of same-sex marriage, got a November surprise.

CUBA: Restoring Hemingway’s Yacht

Cultural authorities in Cuba are undertaking what Washington has not done: they are restoring the yacht that inspired the most famous novel of U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961).

TAJIKISTAN: No Prizes for Guessing Election Results

Many Tajiks say they already know who will win their country's presidential elections on Monday - whether or not they turn out at the polls.

RIGHTS-BRITAIN: Not Quite a Face to Face Chat

When British leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw remarked that he often asked veiled Muslim women to remove their veils when they came to see him on constituency matters, he sparked off a storm over religious rights.

CAMBODIA: Visit Angkor Wat, Educate a Child

For thousands of daily visitors to the sprawling 12th century Buddhist monument of Angkor Wat, it is a hassle avoiding touts attempting to selling souvenirs and postcards. But most are happy to see the saffron-clad monks and pose with them for photographs.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Countering Coerced Confessions

The release of Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, one of Iran’s more famous prisoners of conscience in recent years, was not accompanied by the usual round of televised confessions.

DEVELOPMENT: UN Chief Says Youth Key to Poverty Fight

With less than two months before he steps down as secretary-general after a long 10-year tenure, Kofi Annan is disappointed that the international community is lagging behind in its much-touted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

RIGHTS-COTE D’IVOIRE: Disability and Sex Can Share the Same Bed, Say Women

Marginalised by society because they have few legal or institutional forms of protection, disabled women in Cote d'Ivoire are now coming out of the shadows and demanding their rights - particularly those related to their sexual and reproductive lives.

AFGHANISTAN: NATO Strikes – Parliament to Probe Civilian Deaths

As concern mounts about increasing civilian casualties in bloody battles between coalition troops and Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, a team of parliamentarians is preparing for an on-the-spot probe of non-combatant deaths in Panjwayi district.

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Switch On the Sun to Get Cooking

The women in Kajiado were sceptical - unwilling to believe that cardboard containers lined with aluminium foil on the inside could cook food when placed in the sun.

JAPAN: Turning to ‘NEETS’ to Cover Labour Shortages

For the past four years, Naoko Suzuki and her husband Koiji have been trying various ways to coax their 26-year-old son to leave the tight cocoon of his room and join a training programme that may help him get a job and enter mainstream society.

BANGLADESH: Violence Mars Start of Election Process

A decision by Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed on Sunday, to head an interim government to conduct general elections set for January, may exacerbate widespread political violence that has already resulted in 27 deaths over the weekend.

MUSIC-ARGENTINA: Three Boys Ride the Web to Overnight Rock Fame

Three brothers in the north of Argentina who are into heavy metal decided to upload on the Internet some music videos filmed in their bedroom - never imagining that only 15 days later their music would be in demand by millions of people, and they would be showered with proposals.

POLITICS-IRAN: Ahmadinejad’s Divine Inspiration

Amid a struggle between two major clerical factions for control of Iran's influential Assembly of Experts, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to shore up his conservative base by portraying himself as a man with a direct link to god.

BALKANS: Albanian Troubles Set to Resurface

The crisis over the future of ethnic Albanians has come to the fore again in the face of a referendum on a new constitution in Serbia this weekend.

SRI LANKA: Political Consensus Boost for Geneva Talks

As the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse prepares for talks with Tamil Tiger rebels in Geneva on the weekend, it goes in with hands strengthened by a political understanding arrived at with the main opposition United National Party (UNP).

POLITICS-US: Muslim and Arab Americans Ditch Republicans

Increasingly disillusioned with more than five years of the "global war on terror", Arab- and Muslim-American voters are poised to vote heavily Democratic in the Nov. 7 mid-term elections, according to two polls released this week.

CUBA: Faith, Farming and the Environment

Cuban pastor Raymundo García surveys the well-tended fields of crops, the artificial lake and the ancient trees that he managed to save from felling, and dreams of extending the limits of El Retiro (The Retreat) and turning the dry fields around it green.

MUSIC-CHILE: Mapuche Hip-Hop

They don't like to be referred to as indigenous people, but use their art to fight for the self-determination of their people. They do not all speak the Mapuche language fluently, but are keen on preserving the culture of that ethnic group. These five young Chileans of Mapuche descent are making it on the local hip-hop scene.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Intolerance of Dissidence Covers Clerics

Iran's notoriously harsh treatment of dissidents seems to have reached a point where Tehran's popular police chief, Brig. Gen. Morteza Talai, has resigned in protest over the arrest of a well-known religious leader.

ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Readying for Life Without Bluefin Tuna Dishes

Fish vendors in this seafood crazy country are yet to recover from the shock of seeing their government accept a drastic 50 percent cut in Japan's catches of the prized southern bluefin tuna.