RIGHTS: Muslims More Shaken Than London

The bomb blasts in London last week that killed more than 50 and left more than 700 injured, have shaken the Muslim community of Britain more than they have shaken London.

BALKANS: Tens of Thousands Mark Decade Since Srebrenica Massacre

Hands on their eyes, bending slowly towards the ground, in accordance with the Islamic funeral tradition known as janazah, hundreds of relatives of the men and boys executed ten years ago in the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica said a last farewell to their loved ones.

G8 SUMMIT: Pop Campaign on Africa Fizzles Out

Outside of British officialdom, celebrations over increased G8 aid for Africa were confined mostly to a population of two - rock stars Bob Geldof and Bono.

POLITICS-CANADA: A Tale of Two Cities

Community activists are criticising what they say is a link between cuts to social services and massive budget overruns for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games due to rising labour rates and material costs.

ECONOMY-IRAN: Oil Boom May Spell Ahmadinedjad’s Doom

Like Ahmadinedjad, the president-elect of Iran, Akbar Hashmi was born in Garmsar, a small town on the edge of the desert that lies to the south-east of the capital city. But similarities end there.

POLITICS: 10 Years On, Lab Works to Heal Bosnian Families

Like many Bosnian Muslims living abroad, Eldvin B leaves his current home each summer to return to his native Bosnia-Herzegovina.

G8 SUMMIT: Pop Diplomacy Takes Over

Intense negotiations began straightaway on the first day of the Group of Eight summit - not amongst the G8 leaders, but between pop stars and the heads of state.

POLITICS-US: The Christian Left Strikes Back

As prodigiously funded groups on the religious right prepare to square off against the equally well-endowed but largely sectarian left in a take-no-prisoners battle over the replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, there are signs that a new progressive religious movement may be emerging.

HEALTH: Religion Lends Shelter, Activism to HIV/AIDS

Sneha Samaj, an HIV-positive woman from Nepal, attends a spiritual class once a month. There, she reads the Bible and discusses the importance of compassion together with others living with HIV/AIDS, under the gentle leadership of nuns.

POLITICS: As Dalai Lama Turns 70, a Free Tibet Still Far Away

There is a sense of celebration in this small north Indian town, at the foothills of the snow-capped Himalayas, as the cool mountain air carries strains of melodious songs for the Dalai Lama's long life, sung at the nearby Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE: South India Promotes Temple as Living ‘Wonder’

Hype is growing. Chances are slim. Yet the people of Tamil Nadu State's oldest and culturally most active city - Madurai - are upbeat that their 16th-century Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple will be voted as one of the seven new wonders of the world.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE: Maori ‘Marae’ Integral to New Zealand Tourism

Atop the Te Mata peak, in freezing 6C weather, visitors to New Zealand are treated to a traditional 'Powhiri' or Maori welcome ceremony.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CHILE: Book Reveals Truth of General’s Apocryphal Memoirs

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and that is certainly the case with one of the best-selling novels in Chile this June, 'Cadáver tuerto' ('One-Eyed Corpse'), in which author Eduardo Labarca confesses to having written the 1976 "memoirs" of General Carlos Prats, assassinated two years earlier.

COLOMBIA: Indigenous Women Help Preserve Biodiversity

Indigenous people in Colombia's Amazon jungle region use a garden for just two or three years before abandoning it to clear a new one somewhere else, thus practising sustainable agriculture in an exuberant but fragile environment where the soil is extremely poor.

G8 SUMMIT: A Wristband and a Concert Aren’t Enough, Say Activists

"The politics of G8 got somewhat lost at Live 8," says Neil Williams, an activist with the British socialist coalition known simply as Respect, about the 10 concerts performed Saturday in 10 cities.

CUBA: In Search of the Island’s First Inhabitants

Archaeological digs in Cuba could turn today's theories about the earliest humans here and the Antilles on their head. "We are just at the beginning of it all," says German archaeologist Jean Weining a bit cautiously.

G8 SUMMIT: The Music Will Have Developmental Echoes

Long after the music dies down at the Live 8 concerts and the crowds go home, echoes will linger by way of questions whether star-studded shows like these are what Africa needs.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Muslim Women Tackle Orthodoxy

Being a woman can be tough in patriarchal India but to be a Muslim as well can be truly trying. Yet Muslim women across the country are learning to stand up for their rights in several different ways.

CANADA: Gay Marriage Galvanises Nascent Religious Right

As Canada joins the three other countries in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, religious conservatives who actively opposed the move are licking their wounds and vowing that their fight is not over.

VIETNAM: Confusion Rises With Teen Suicides

An increasing number of youth suicides has prompted social workers and relevant officials to dig into the roots of the phenomenon. One of their findings is that not much has been done in Vietnam to help them understand the disturbing issue.

POLITICS-US: Jesus is Not Our Co-Pilot, Academy Insists

The U.S. Air Force continued to carry out damage control Tuesday before a congressional committee looking into religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which trains future officers.