POLITICS-THAILAND: June May Be the Cruellest Month

June is threatening to become the most violent month in southern Thailand since clashes erupted there 18 months ago between government forces and suspected Muslim militants.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Mumbai’s Bar Show Goes On – For Now

Hundreds of thousands of women who sing and dance in the bars of the western Indian state of Maharashtra are likely celebrating the survival of their means of livelihood. On Thursday the governor returned unsigned an ordinance intended to ban the dance bars.

RIGHTS: Fighting For Mukhtaran Bibi, Again

Pakistani-born Mukhtaran Bibi has become an international icon to women who refuse to suffer violence in silence.

MALAYSIA: Islamic Party Doffs Robes Dons Shirt Sleeves

Malaysia's opposition Islamic party, which frightened the ruling, western-educated Muslim Malay class and foreign investors with hefty gains in the 1999 election but lost it all in last year's polls, has embarked on a makeover of their formidable image in a fresh attempt to win support, especially from the nation's non-Muslims.

SINGAPORE: City State Debates Exploitation of Maids

A rare passionate public debate on a social issue is raging in this tiny affluent South-east Asian nation on how the country treats the thousands of maids or "foreign domestic workers" (FDWs) here.

CULTURE-RWANDA: A Poolside View of Genocide

High on a misty, terraced hillside, where a road winds through verdant woods and reddish-brown rock, a makeshift roadblock has been constructed.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Cardinal’s Death a Loss to Pro-Democracy Activists

South-east Asia lost its greatest symbol of ''people power'' with the death Tuesday of Cardinal Jaime Sin, former head of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.

FILM-INDIA: Nair Returns to Roots for Another Take on Immigrants

In the cruel heat of a Kolkata summer, Mira Nair was in a hurry to wrap up the shoot of 'The Namesake' in early June and see her film on the editing table by September.

FILM-US: Media With a Message Stars At Youth Festival

At first there is nothing odd about the picture on-screen: a cyclist on the bustling streets of Manhattan, protected by a helmet, gloves and a cycling suit. Then the camera captures a wider angle, and the audience sees that the cyclist has only one leg.

FILM: Mexico-US ‘Devil’s Highway’ A Killer

In May 2001, a group of 26 undocumented Mexican immigrants crossed the border into the United States and headed north through an Arizona desert area so barren and hostile it is known as the Devil's Highway.

CULTURE: China, South Korea Trade ‘Hip’ Status

China's young and hip generation is in the embrace of a "Korean wave" - a powerful taste-making force influencing everything from music and films to fashion and beauty. But an equally strong China fever, or "China wind" as Koreans call it, is sweeping South Korea, infusing all things Chinese with retro chic and allure and making China a top tourist destination.

REFUGEES-KENYA: Contraceptives – Both Needed and Scorned

As the international community marks World Refugee Day, a Somali woman's tale of how she helped fellow refugees terminate pregnancies has highlighted the shortcomings of reproductive health care in refugee camps.

HEALTH: A Wind of Hope in Kenya’s Desert

Madonna's 1980s hit song 'Like a Virgin' blasts incongruously from a giant silver speaker in the corner of a bar deep inside Isiolo - a dusty town on the edge of Kenya's northern Kaisut desert, filled with tough nomads and their herds of emaciated animals.

MALAYSIA: Gov’t Blasted for Bold Steps Against AIDS

Beneath the affluence, the sophistication and the Western trappings lies the soft under belly of Malaysia's Islamic conservatism - no sex education in schools, no holding hands, no kissing in parks, no visuals of condoms on television and, sometimes, even no cinemas.

BANGLADESH: HRW Charges Gov’t Complicity in Ahmadi Persecution

Secularism and religious tolerance in Bangladesh are increasingly threatened by the government's appeasement of extremist Muslim groups that are actively persecuting the minority Ahmadiyya community, according to a new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) Thursday.

POLITICS-US: "Heathens" Not Welcome at Air Force Academy

In late April, the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a longtime religious watchdog group, called the nation's attention to numerous incidents of religious bias and the official promotion of fundamentalist Christianity at the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based United States Air Force Academy - a problem that apparently has been brewing for quite some time.

RIGHTS: Govt’s Failing to Track, Punish Wave of Hate Crimes

Representatives from 55 countries wrapped up a two-day conference on bigotry in Cordoba, Spain, after being warned of an "alarming increase" in anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate crimes, and a "disturbing lack of response" to hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender, and disability.

INDIA: Fugitive Heroes Highlight Need for Police Reforms

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi is a true blue nawab (prince), former captain of India's cricket team and the husband and father of movie stars. For the last two weeks he has also evaded arrest by police on charges of slaughtering endangered wildlife.

INDONESIA: Sulawesi Bombs Cloaking Corruption?

Tension remains high in Central and West Sulawesi, where greedy politicians and rogue Islamic groups - rather than a revival of sectarian violence or international terrorism - look to be behind the latest attacks directed against Christian targets in Tentena and Mamasa.

HEALTH-INDIA: Ayurveda Under Attack from Modern Medicine

As ayurveda, India's ancient herbal system of longevity and health revives in popularity it is coming under fire from the practitioners of modern allopathic medicine who accuse it of quackery and its preparations of being loaded with toxic metals and even steroids.

POLITICS: Civil Society Champion, or Partisan Operative?

In countries across the globe, independent organisations are struggling to build civil society. Depending on who is defining the goals of civil society, it can be alluring or unappealing; both transparent and ambiguous.