VENEZUELA: Mural’s Demolition Draws Mixed Reviews

Instead of laying the cornerstone or cutting the ribbon at its inauguration, the mayor of La Guaira, Venezuela performed a rather unusual ceremonial act for the Chromatic Wall, a mural by world-renowned painter Carlos Cruz-Diez stretching two kilometres around the city's port: he struck the first hammer blow in its demolition.

EDUCATION-SPAIN: Changes in Religious Instruction on Track for Approval

Despite the fierce opposition of Spain's right-wing Popular Party and the Catholic Church, an educational reform bill that would change religious instruction in the country's schools is on the road to approval.

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Clear Choices in Close Electoral Contest

When 13 million Sri Lankan voters cast their ballots on Thursday, they will do so with clear choices before them and the sense that this is the closest contest for the top job since 1979, when the country adopted executive presidency.

PAKISTAN: Rape Victim Turns Women’s Rights Icon

Quiet dignity envelopes her slender frame, downcast eyes and nearly inaudible speech. But the more Mukhtaran Mai withdraws into her self, the more she becomes the woman of steel who dared take on the might of the Pakistani state and extreme patriarchal attitudes.

POLITICS-US: Left, Right and Centre Dissect Bush Court Nominee

Despite the enormous challenges facing the United States - education, health care, poverty, church and state, race relations, terrorism, Iraq, prisoner abuse, budget deficits, to name but a few - the nomination of Judge Sam Alito to the Supreme Court appears to have come down to a single issue: abortion.

LATIN AMERICA: The Masonic Web

In Latin America and the Caribbean, there are a number of presidents, judges, legislators and party leaders who attend "temples" to work behind close doors, far from the sight of the uninitiated.

RIGHTS: ‘Information Society Must Block Paedophiles’

A major U.N. conference that aims to bridge the gap in information technology between the world's affluent and poorest societies is in danger of inadvertently catering to the needs and fantasies of the world's paedophiles.

INDONESIA: ‘Demolition Man’ Dead but Fears Remain

While authorities are patting themselves on the back for tracking down and eliminating Azahari bin Husin, also known as the 'Demolition Man', fears remain that acts of terrorism similar to the ghastly café bombings on the tourist resort of Bali may continue.

JAPAN: Neo-Nationalism Endangers Gender Equality

When her husband committed suicide five years ago, Mariko, 56, was left alone to fend for herself in a society that not only offered few opportunities to start life again but also blamed the desperate widow for the tragedy.

CULTURE-SOUTH AFRICA: Seeing, Rather Than Seen

Black women in South Africa are no strangers to photography. In years gone by, however, they have typically found themselves in front of the lens - often portrayed as "'mother of the nation', 'black sex object' or 'poor, black victim without agency'," in the words of gender activist Janine Moolman.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ CULTURE-UAE: Breaking Records to Break Records

The tallest hotel, the largest excavated dry docks, the biggest bowl of spaghetti, the largest stained glass mural - the list is endless for the number of Guinness records that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) holds.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ FILM-BRAZIL: Laughter in the House of Pain

The Brazilian documentary "Doutores da alegría" (Doctors of Happiness) won prizes at two international festivals this year, as a tribute to its special mission - to share the experience of a group of Brazilian actors who decided to dress up as clowns and bring joy to children in hospitals rather than at the circus.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BOOKS-ARGENTINA: Biographer Bows to ‘Queen Cristina’

The books written by Argentine journalist Olga Wornat on the private lives of leading Latin American politicians have tended to be highly controversial. Her biography of Senator Cristina Fernández, the wife of Argentine President Néstor Kirchner, is no exception, albeit for different reasons.

HUMAN RIGHTS-US: Exporting Torture

The U.S. government prohibits torture on its own soil, but operates secret prisons in various parts of the world where human rights are regularly violated, maintained political analyst Roberto Montoya and rights activist Miguel Ángel Calderón in interviews with IPS.

MEDIA: Telling the Burma Story, in Exile

Few journalists are better equipped to reveal the inside story of the narcotics trade in Burma than Khuensai Jaiyen, a 57-year-old editor who wears thick glasses and has an impish sense of humour.

CULTURE: Return-to-Village Frenzy Grips Malaysia

It is comparable to the suicidal rush of lemmings. But the annual Balik Kampung (Return to the Village), the biggest mass event on the Malaysian calendar, is marked as much by the joyousness of home coming as the horrendous road accidents on the way.

MEDIA-COLOMBIA: Death Threats and Self-Censorship

They live in such fear that they dare not venture beyond the city limits. The death threats are periodically renewed, just in case it occurs to any of them that the danger has disappeared. They are reporters in the midst of Colombia's four-decade civil war.

COMMUNICATION: No Turning Back on Civil Society Participation

The most important advance made by the World Summit on the Information Society is having conceived a model of Internet governance in which governments, civil society and the private sector all participate on an equal footing, according to Uruguayan expert Raúl Echeberría.

NEPAL: Court Verdicts Bring Small Victories to Women

Legislation providing that Nepali women be treated on par with men is no guarantee that such treatment will occur.

POLITICS-US: Bush Hopes to Save Face with New Court Pick

By swiftly nominating Judge Samuel Alito to the decisive "swing" seat on the nine-justice Supreme Court, U.S. President George W. Bush Monday appeared determined to accomplish two urgent tasks.

POLITICS: Ethnic Strife Spikes in South Thailand

Prospects for peace in Thailand's troubled south have dimmed because of escalating incidents of violence by shadowy, Muslim-Malay insurgent groups on the one hand and calls for tougher measures by Buddhist monks on the other.