AFGHAN ELECTIONS: Women Get to Sing and Want a Place in Mosques

In a move to exercise their rights in a new government to be headed by incumbent President Hamid Karzai, Afghan women have asked for separate places to worship in Afghanistan's mosques venturing for the first time into a controversy that has divided religious authorities in the war-torn country for years.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CUBA: Fascination with Argentine Culture Spans Generations

Carlos Gardel album covers, newspaper clippings and yellowed photographs once covered every inch of the walls in the narrow entryway on Havana's Neptuno Street where someone had turned their home into a tango museum.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-CHINA: From Mozart to Puccini, But Where’s the Soul?

When the 'Three Tenors' gave a mega-concert in the capital's Forbidden City in 2000, there were more than one or two listeners among the ecstatic audience who complained the world virtuosos didn't sing any Chinese melodies.

ASIA: Chinese Tourists Set to Change Face of Region

Fear of a downturn in tourist arrivals to South- east Asia due to the combined effects of terrorism and lethal health hazards such as bird flu seems to be unfounded. And the hordes of Chinese travelling from mainland China to neighbouring countries seem to bear testimony to that fact.

RELIGION-LATIN AMERICA: Catholic Church Losing Followers in Droves

For the Catholic church hierarchy in the Vatican, Latin America has changed from the "Continent of Hope" to the continent of concern, as followers are leaving the church in such large numbers that it could lead to the collapse of Catholicism within a decade and a half.

SPAIN: Theologians Blast Catholic Bishops’ Opposition to Social Reforms

A group of Catholic theologians in Spain have criticised the local Church leadership for lashing out against the legislative reforms promoted by the socialist government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which include measures that would reduce the financing that the Church receives from the state.

IRAQ: Plight of Christians Provokes Calls for Special Protection

While the successful penetration by suicide bombers, who killed 10 people, including four U.S. nationals, of the carefully guarded ''Green Zone'' in downtown Baghdad grabbed headlines here this week, another measure of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq came from a more surprising source.

ARGENTINA: The Struggle for the Right of Same-Sex Couples to Adopt

Who is the mommy and who is the daddy for children adopted by same-sex couples? Does being raised in this kind of family affect the emotional and psychological development of these children?

/ARTS WEEKLY/VENEZUELA: When Recycling Stirs Creative Juices

An exhibit of paintings and sculptures produced with recycled materials has arrived at the Sofía Imber Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas after nine years of travelling around public spaces.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BOOKS-INDIA: A Saviour for Asian Elephants

Every creature, from a louse to a lyrebird, is a marvel of nature. But some marvels are just more marvellous than others - and none more so than an elephant.

/ARTS WEEKLY/POETRY-SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Tower of Babel Hinders Dialogue

Ceasar Ruiz Aquino's journey as a poet wound its way to the Thai capital this month, when the 62-year-old Filipinio was awarded a prize for being among the best contemporary writers in South-east Asia.

RELIGION: Bishops Talk About Cockroaches, Lesbians and Democracy

The Catholic Church will always be hierarchical, will continue to keep women out of the priesthood, and will never accept marriage between homosexuals, said bishops from around the world meeting in Mexico.

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Church Group that Documents Abuses Told ‘Watch What You Write’

The Intercongregational Justice and Peace Commission in Colombia was recently told "watch what you write," in a message threatening that "something terrible" could happen.

LITERATURE: Garcia Marquez Gives Another Twist to Love

"Memories of My Melancholy Whores", a new novel by Colombian Nobel Literature Prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez that is scheduled for release in Spanish on Oct. 20, is an untold page in the life of Florentino Ariza, the central character in "Love in the Time of Cholera", which was published in 1985.

IRAQ: Plight of Christians Provokes Calls for Special Protection

While the successful penetration by suicide bombers, who killed ten people, including four U.S. nationals, of the carefully guarded ''Green Zone'' in downtown Baghdad grabbed headlines here this week, another measure of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq came from a more-surprising source.

THAILAND: Ramadan Sees Hope, Fear and Brutality in the South

The start of Ramadan this Friday, when pious Muslims seek to cleanse their souls and come together in the name of peace, sees mosques in Southern Thailand taking a centre- stage in a region racked by recent violence and bloody killings.

MEXICO: Wal-Mart Superstore Set to Open Near Pyramids

With permits in hand and even approval from UNESCO, the U.S.-based retail giant Wal-Mart is overcoming local resistance and preparing to open a store less than two km from the ancient Teotihuacan pyramids of Mexico.

COLOMBIA: Indigenous Women Reclaim Traditional Medicine

Luxmenia Banda, of the San Andrés de Sotavento indigenous reserve in northern Colombia, remembers that when she had bruises as a girl, her grandmother would apply the leaves of the 'árnica' (Heterotheca inuloides), of the daisy family, ''to reduce inflammation'', and would use crushed oregano to prevent scratches from becoming infected.

EDUCATION-KENYA: Mastering the ABCs is Not Always Child’s Play

Discussions about improving the level of education in Kenya often focus on the challenge of achieving universal primary education - or ensuring that girls are not discriminated against when it comes to schooling.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BOOKS: U.S. Immigration Jails Have Long History of Abuse

"Long before Abu Ghraib, and even before Sep. 11, detainee in America's immigration prisons were being stripped, beaten, and sexually abused."

/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-GERMANY: Politics Hangs over Books Festival

The 4th International Literary Festival ended in Berlin at the weekend (Oct 2). For 12 days,150 writers and poets from 46 countries participated in more than 350 book readings, poetry recitals and literary debates staged in a variety of different venues, including theatres, cafes, schools, libraries, cemeteries and city prisons.