ENVIRONMENT-MIDEAST: Water Conservation Reaches the Mosque

Authorities and environmentalists worried about water scarcity in the Middle East have a new ally - religion.

HEALTH-PHILIPPINES: Putting a Face to HIV/AIDS Through Art

Bella, a teenage mother pregnant with her third child, called up Libby Manaoag, host of a radio talk show in the Philippine capital. The high school dropout wanted advice to stop her husband from beating her. She still loved him, Bella confessed, even though he had tried to burn her hands over the stove.

RIGHTS: U.S. Struggle that United White, Black Schools Marks an Anniversary

Fifty-one years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that would forever change life in America. The Court ruled that ''separate but equal'' schools for white and black children were inherently unequal.

U.S.: Security Missteps Spawn Quirky Cases

Expanded powers and a heightened sense of alert have helped U.S. law enforcers take some dangerous people off the country's streets since the White House declared its ''war on terror''. But they also have triggered some bizarre missteps.

MEDIA-U.S.: A Tale of Two Stories

Here's a question for international news hounds. Who is the ''son of a bitch'' referred to in this comment by a U.S. Defence Department spokesman?

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM: Where Drugs, Immigration, and Corrido Music Collide

A young man arrives at a fork in the road and neither choice before him presents a lesser risk to his survival, neither one is less traveled, and neither one is morally higher or lower than the other.

/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-CHILE: New Anthology Celebrates Work of Leftist Literary ‘Misfit’

'Restaurant Chile' is a newly released anthology of poems by José Angel Cuevas, a collection of works spanning the 26-year career of this self-described "misfit", a respected writer who nonetheless prefers to dwell on the fringes of the country's literary elite.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BOOKS-THAILAND: Of ‘Lady Boys’ and Men in Hair Bands

The glossy cover greets you with a loud splash of neon pink and yellow, with photographs symbolising the very epitome of Thailand emblazoned on the book that entices one into flipping the pages of this pop art-inspired coffee table book.

PERU: Violence Widens Gap Between Remote Indigenous Communities and State

The murder of a four-person visiting health brigade in Peru's northern Amazon jungle region, blamed on members of the Awajún indigenous community, highlighted the distance between the Peruvian state and the country's large aboriginal population.

POLITICS-U.S.: ‘Republican Revolution’ Architect Mulls White House Run

Nearly a decade after being named Time magazine's ''Man of the Year,'' Newt Gingrich is out greasing the skids for a possible 2008 run at the White House with a tour promoting ''Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract With America'', a book containing a series of 20th century proposals wrapped in 21st century rhetoric. The book had a short stay on the New York Times bestseller list but will the public be buying Gingrich as presidential timber?

CULTURE-SWAZILAND: Making a Bull Market for Cows

When is a cow considerably more than the sum of its parts? When the animal happens to live in one of a good many developing countries, probably – not least Swaziland.

PORTUGAL: Last Surviving ‘Secret’ Jewish Community Still Wary of Outsiders

The residents of Europe's last surviving crypto-Jewish community, who live in this village in Portugal's central mountains, are still averse to talking to outsiders.

RIGHTS-U.S.: Fear of Islam on the Rise – Muslim Group

Reported incidents of anti-Muslim bias including hate crimes, discrimination, and harassment rose sharply in the United States last year, according to a new report by a major Islamic group.

PERU: Protecting Machu Picchu from Too Many Tourists

The Peruvian government has a new conservation plan in the works for its most important archaeological attraction: the Inca city of Machu Picchu, under threat from the excessive flow of tourists through its ruins. But local tourism operators oppose any effort to reduce the number of visits to the site.

RIGHTS-EU: Headscarf Fails To Find Protection

A group of Muslims and Sikhs from across Europe lobbied the European Parliament Wednesday in an attempt to breathe new life into a debate on the right to wear religious symbols in schools..

SOUTH AMERICA: Fomenting Greater Understanding at Summit with Arab Countries

South American and Arab leaders taking part in the two-day summit that opened Tuesday in the Brazilian capital were facing a serious risk of not being able to understand each other - literally.

/ARTS WEEKLY/LATIN AMERICA: Microcinemas and Digital Alternatives

Digital technologies and microcinemas are providing an alternative for getting non-commercial films distributed and screened more widely in Latin America, while offering lower-cost options for independent filmmakers to produce their works.

/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-VENEZUELA: One Million Quixotes

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have been lining up around the country for a free copy of what is considered the all-time greatest work of literature in the Spanish language, "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, on the 400th anniversary of its first publication.

/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-VIETNAM: Writers Becoming State Puppets?

The long absence of good literary works from Vietnam has set off some soul-searching questions among authors here, with many asking whether government grants given to members of the Vietnamese Writers' Association (VWA) have been put to good use.

SOUTH AMERICA: Summit with Arab Countries to Focus on Trade Ties

Some 9,000 soldiers and police will be deployed around the Brazilian capital over the next few days to provide security for the first-ever summit between South American and Arab leaders, aimed at bolstering cooperation as well as economic and trade ties between the two regions.

POPULATION: ‘Soft Power’ On the Rise in Japan

The collapse of Japan's 'bubble economy' in the 1990s and Japan's subsequent decline as a global manufacturing power have created new openings for women in what used to be a society heavily dominated by men.