PAKISTAN: Design Emerges to Cartoon Protests

Authorities in this port city heaved a sigh of relief, Thursday, after the biggest rally taken out in this country to protest against newspaper caricatures of Prophet Mohammad, also turned out to be the most peaceful, yet.

MIDEAST: ‘Cartoons Bring Welcome Distraction for Arab Govts’

As furore grips the Muslim world over the cartoon illustrations of prophet Mohammed, accusations have surfaced that governments opposed to democracy have their own reasons to show the dark side of the so-called free world.

MEDIA-RELIGION: Britain Looks Away From the Cartoons

As violence over the Mohammed cartoons continues at scattered locations around the world, Britain has looked away from them in the interest of good race relations.

HEALTH: Lifestyle Diseases Overtake Asia’s Infectious Killers

Mounting evidence that more people in Asia and the Pacific will be dying of chronic diseases rather than infectious ones by 2015 will force the region's governments to redraw their public health budgets, say United Nations officials.

INDONESIA: Holy Ire at Cartoons Shifts to Soft Porn

As the controversy over newspaper caricatures of Prophet Mohammad simmers, religious orthodoxy in this country has a new issue to get hot and bothered about - a local edition of 'Playboy' magazine set to be launched in March.

MEXICO: New Demands for Return of Aztec Headdress from Austria

Mexico has not given up on its campaign to get Austria to return what is thought to be the headdress worn by Aztec emperor Moctezuma. But there is little hope for success, despite the optimism of indigenous activists and others fighting to reclaim it from the Ethnological Museum in Vienna.

ECONOMY-SUDAN: Service With a Smile Not Yet a Priority, Say Investors

The sprawling nation of Sudan is known for many things, but delectable food is not one of them. The unofficial national dish, "foul" (pronounced "fuul") is a mixture of beans, watery cheese, tomatoes, and limp arugula.

AFRICA-BRAZIL: Lula Includes Blacks on Foreign and Domestic Agendas

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to Brasilia Monday after his fifth tour of Africa, while the controversy over quotas for black and indigenous students in Brazil's public universities continues to rage.

MEDIA-ARGENTINA: “Subtle” Means of Censorship

Discriminatory use of government advertising, phone calls by public officials to exert pressure on journalists, editors and media owners, delays in passing a "sunshine law" on public access to information, and refusal by government officials to give interviews or press conferences.

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Activist Artists Subvert the Message

From a distance it looks like an ordinary traffic sign, a yellow rhombus like so many others in the Argentine capital. But on approach, the sign can be seen to contain an unusual warning message: "A former torturer lives 100 metres from here."

BALKANS: The World Must See the Light

Nikola Tesla did much to show the world the light, and Croatia and Serbia both want that recognised this year.

EGYPT: Boycott Takes Over From Diplomacy

A boycott of Danish goods following publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper has been largely successful, going by market reports.

MALAYSIA: ‘Muslims Angry at War on Terror, Not Cartoons’

Delegates at an international conference here entitled 'Who Speaks for Islam? Who speaks for the West', were inclined to blame the ferocity of reactions against the cartoon controversy, which gripped the world this past week, on the 'war on terror' in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CUBA: Combining Skills Training, Heritage Restoration and Jobs

"Restoring our heritage is like reliving history day by day," said Alberto Herrera, making himself heard above the banging of hammers and the strident buzz of a motor saw in this vocational training school in Old Havana, where he is learning carpentry.

ARGENTINA: Allegations of Illegal Adoptions Implicate Church

María Jerez remembers her first daughter, who would be 17 today. She says that when the baby was born, she gave her to Catholic nuns in the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero in exchange for a promise of a house.

RIGHTS-MALAWI: “Have Men in Our Land Chosen to Become Worse Than Beasts?”

When police announced recently that they had detained a man in the northern town of Karonga for allegedly killing his wife after she refused him sex, there were hopes that the arrest would send a stern warning to other husbands with violent inclinations.

CHINA: Race to Improve Air Quality for 2008 Olympics

With just two years left for the 2008 Olympics, this city is struggling to live up to its pledge of hosting the 'green games' while also meeting the demands of its increasingly affluent residents and their consumerist ways.

AFGHANISTAN: Women Stay Vulnerable to Violence

Gul Zarina, a mother of three, wants divorce from her husband. Sitting in front of the women's affairs department in this provincial capital in Afghanistan, she insists that maltreatment and domestic violence are her reasons.

ENVIRONMENT-U.S.: Evangelical Leaders Call for Government Action on Warming

Breaking with some of their colleagues in the Christian Right, a group of more than 85 U.S. evangelical Christian leaders called on Congress Wednesday to enact legislation that would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which most scientists believe contribute to global warming.

CULTURE-MEXICO: Bull’s Blood – Seeing Red

A bull leaping into the stands at the main bullfighting arena in Mexico City was for many fans an exciting moment, worthy of celebration. But for activists opposed to cruelty to animals, it was more evidence of the "savagery" of the blood sport.

MEDIA-RELIGION: European Journalists Begin to Condemn Cartoons

A growing number of European journalists and political caricaturists are condemning the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that have deepened the schism between Europe and the Muslim world.