DEVELOPMENT: Culture Key to Millennium Goals, Says UNDP Report

Inclusive, culturally diverse societies are key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, according to the new Human Development Report released Thursday. The report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN's global development network, says "cultural diversity must be embraced as a basic human right" to achieve the set of eight development goals.

CULTURE: Another Shot at the Right to Be Who You Are

Development can be so much about culture, this year's Human Development Report of the UNDP argues. It is about the millennium development goals and so on in the poor countries, but it is also so much about "the right to be who you are wherever you are," Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, lead author and director of the report told IPS in an interview.

HEALTH-BRAZIL: Abortion of Anencephalic Fetuses Fires Debate

The abortion of anencephalic fetuses -which have no brain - is legal in Brazil since Jul. 1 as the result of a preliminary court ruling that the Catholic Church is eager to quash, and the question has fuelled the national debate on abortion.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: U.S. Apology First Step Only – Tribal Leaders

Chief Brian Buchanan boarded a plane Tuesday in search of international advice on how to end a century-old dispute between his Indian tribe and the U.S. government, but he says he would still welcome an apology from Washington for the way it has treated indigenous people.

MEDIA: Newsrooms Pale in Contrast to Diverse U.S. Society

The world of journalism is much whiter than the world it represents, according to two media industry studies.

CHILE: Celebrating One of the Greatest 20th Century Writers

The world is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pablo Neruda, who brought Chile its second Nobel Literature Prize, in 1971, and is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.

HEALTH-UGANDA: Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Defies Prevention Efforts

Uganda's success in fighting AIDS has been justly celebrated. In 1993, the country had an HIV prevalence rate of 30 percent - this according to the Uganda AIDS Commission, which was set up by government to coordinate the fight against HIV. The rate now stands at six percent.

UAE: Age-Old Arab Sport Faces Bleak Future

The picture of an Arab warrior dressed in flowing white robes, seated astride his stallion with a falcon seated on his outstretched arm is an awe-inspiring one. Arabs and falcons have an age-old relationship and it is difficult to imagine one without the other.

HEALTH-THAILAND: Afro-Asian Music Connection Helps AIDS Awareness

The defining moment for U.S.-born Thai folk-rock musician Todd Lavell Tongdee, in terms of relating to the AIDS deaths of African musicians to his own crusade back home in Thailand, was when he played with Nigerian Afro-rock star Femi Kuti and his Positive Force Band at an international concert in Beijing, China.

HEALTH-SENEGAL: Cardinals and Khalifs Unite Against AIDS

It's 13:30 in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on Friday. Traffic stops around the Old Mosque. The sound of babouches shuffling on the pavement replaces hooting. Thousands fill the streets.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Calling Those With Deep Pockets, and Vast Patience

Political office has never been for the faint-of-heart. Getting into office is often a dirty business, and staying there a trying one. There's no denying, however, that legislators from developing countries - in the case of this article, Zimbabwe - face a particularly challenging set of circumstances.

CULTURE-BALKANS: Music Brings New Harmony

For four days in a row, the northern Serbian town of Novi Sad and its beautiful Petrovaradin fortress that overlooks the Danube river became the capital of the Balkans as they hosted the biggest international music festival in the area EXIT.

DEVELOPMENT-SOMALIA: Khat Dampens Euphoria About Peace

After a marathon round of talks, peace may finally be in sight for Somalia, which has been without central government since 1991. But, some fear that a deeply-rooted practice - the chewing of khat - may undermine the gains of negotiations.

HEALTH-CUBA: Tobacco a Harmful Addiction with a Long Tradition

In Cuba, where the Taino Indians had tobacco in hand as they received Christopher Columbus, thousands of people die of lung cancer every year, and there is a high percentage of smokers despite government anti-smoking campaigns.

POLITICS-U.S.: Inequality Stalks the Polling Station

Inequality will shape November's U.S. general elections, but few voters will voice concern about disparity in the industrialised world's most lopsided society.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-U.S.: ‘Docs’ Become Surprise Election Year Weapons

Millions of Americans are seeing something at movie theatres they have never witnessed in an election year.

/ARTS WEEKLY/NEPAL: Pop Bands Put New Touch to Old Music, Sing to Peace

The ramshackle watchman's quarter outside the two-storied house here is where the six members of the Nepathya, Nepal's popular musical band, gather every afternoon.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ TV-CHILE: The Triumph of the Bandits

The television programme ''Los Pincheira'', inspired on a legendary band of cattle rustlers, is the undisputed victor in Chile of the ''war of the TV series'' for the first half of this year.

HEALTH-EAST TIMOR: Hip-Hop and Rock for Condoms Challenge Church

Musicians in the predominately Catholic East Timor are taking their HIV/AIDS message directly to the people by circumventing official Church policy that bans the use of condoms.

RIGHTS-CUBA: Door Opens for Sexual Diversity

The semi-nude bodies of men interlaced in a passionate embrace seems to stun the Cuban audiences in every performance of ''The Life and Death of Pier Paolo Pasolini'', the play about the Italian filmmaker who was assassinated in 1975, and about discrimination, conventionalisms and mediocrity.

POLITICS-VENEZUELA: The Battle Is On, with Soap Opera and Polls

The last battle for power is on in Venezuela, with a new soap opera shedding a positive light on President Hugo Chávez and his cause, and conflicting opinion poll results regarding the outcome of the Aug. 15 presidential recall referendum.