POLITICS-RWANDA: Should the Bones be Silenced?

A decade after the genocide in Rwanda, citizens of the country are divided over whether victims’ remains should be preserved at the sites where they can still be viewed.

RELIGION: Headscarves Now on German Minds

After a period of what many felt was collective suspicion, Germany's Muslims are searching new ways of recovering identity.

SRI LANKA: Monk Parliamentarians Stir Hornets’ Nest

In the midst of the continuing debate in Sri Lanka over the moral right of the Buddhist clergy to take on politics, fresh controversy has been created by a group of Buddhist monk-MPs who have proposed laws to ban religious conversions.

CULTURE-CAMEROON: Religious Tensions on the Rise in the North

Earlier this year, conflict in Nigeria’s central Plateau state – resulting in part from religious tensions – sparked concern about relations between Christians and Muslims in that country. Now, another West African state appears to be grappling with a similar problem: Cameroon.

BRAZIL: Pele Loses – on the Big Screen

It is impossible for a football fan not to be impressed by "Pelé eterno" (Eternal Pelé), a documentary showing more than 300 goals, surprise moves and triumph after triumph -û as well as a few misses - by the best Brazilian player of all time.

ENVIRONMENT-ITALY: Recycling Is an Art

A kitchen counter and cabinets made from 70 kilos of newspaper, a plastic overcoat, and a lamp made from paper are some examples of Italian eco-designs, which combine environmental protection and sustainable economics.

CUBA-US: War of the Airwaves

The long history of broadcasting clashes between Cuba and the United States has entered a new chapter with the White House granting fresh funds to Radio and TV Martí, stations created by the U.S. government to broadcast anti-Castro programming from U.S. territory.

RELIGION-THAILAND: Monks and Politicians Cross Swords

When senior monks gathered recently to select a leader for Thailand's supreme Buddhist body, the presence of a 200-strong force of armed police commandos helped to highlight another crack on the face of Thai Buddhism.

HEALTH-INDIA: Ancient System of Medicine Survives Despite Odds

Reviving 'Siddha', the world's oldest known system of medicine, is not easy especially when many of its prescriptions smack of alchemy and depend heavily on concoctions prepared from toxic metals such as lead and mercury.

NICARAGUA: Therapeutic Abortion Faces Pressure from the Right

Therapeutic abortion has been legal for more than a century in Nicaragua. But heated parliamentary debate has erupted, spurred on by right-wing and religious groups seeking a ban.

ARGENTINA: Street Soccer World Cup Boosts Dignity for Homeless

"We players are all dreaming and none of us wants to wake up," said Alejandro Martínez, the captain of the Argentine team on its way to the second Homeless World Cup, to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden from Jul. 25 to Aug. 1.

CUBA: Spain’s Flamenco Icon Returns to His Beloved Island

Legendary Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer Antonio Gades died lamenting that he was not able to do more for the Cuban revolution, as indicated by a letter published here Friday, just hours after his ashes were brought to this Caribbean island nation in accordance with his last wishes.

BOLIVIA: Guarani Indians Fight to Keep Oil Company Off Their Land

The Guaraní community of Tentayapi, in southern Bolivia, one of the last bastions of the indigenous group's traditional way of life, is fighting to keep a foreign oil company out of its ancestral territory.

VENEZUELA: Rum Maker Gives Troubled Youths a Second Chance

Late one night in January 2003, pistol in hand, Derwin 'Lion Face' and 'Fattie' José Gregorio stole a watchman's gun and radio equipment at Ron Santa Teresa, the leading rum maker in central Venezuela, and disappeared down the narrow passageways of a nearby slum neighbourhood.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ CULTURE-MEXICO: Police Eye on ‘Tolerant’ Cervantes Festival

Mexico's federal police put an end to the party - sex, alcohol, some drugs and plenty of rock and roll - that has accompanied the International Cervantes Festival held annually in the central city of Guanajuato since 1972.

/ARTS WEEKLY/VIETNAM: Closet Gays Slowly Coming Out

Previously, alternative lifestyles were not widely discussed in Vietnam and topics such as homosexuality were considered taboo in communist-ruled Vietnam.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ FILM-BRAZIL: Cazuza’s Music Doesn’t Stop

More than a million Brazilians flocked to the cinemas over the past month and have been moved by the film ''Cazuza, o tempo nao pára'' (Cazuza: Time Doesn't Stop), reviving the late poetic rock-and-roll rebel of the 1980s, with his excesses of sex and drugs, and his intense but undefined nostalgia.

NICARAGUA: Sandinistas Celebrate Anniversary of Revolution – in Church

Twenty-five years ago the world was taken by surprise by the triumph of the leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who overthrew the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza after nearly two decades of armed struggle.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Women Legislators Lobby for Peace

In a bid to promote peace in Africa's conflict-ridden Great Lakes region, women parliamentarians from the area say they intend taking a more prominent role in talks to end fighting.

FILM-ARGENTINA: Ten Glimpses of Horror

A group of 10 Argentine film-makers each produced a 10-minute short as part of a feature-length film in homage to the 85 people who died in the bombing of a Jewish community centre (AMIA) in the Argentine capital, ready for screening on the tenth anniversary of the tragic event on July 18.

POLITICS-DRC: Pantheon of National History Expands to Include Women

For those largely unfamiliar with Congolese history, a list of people who have shaped the country's past might include no more than two or three names. Patrice Lumumba and Mobutu Sese Seko would certainly feature; perhaps Laurent Kabila as well.