POLITICS-AFRICA: Women Charting the Continent’s Future

"We must congratulate Rwanda for achieving 48.8 percent of women representation in parliament. This is the highest in the world. It means gender parity is no longer a dream but a reality in Africa," said Lulu Xingwana, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy, to thunderous applause from over a thousand women who gathered in the capital, Pretoria, this week.

EDUCATION-LATIN AMERICA: Another Lost Decade?

Teachers in Bolivia earn just 100 dollars a month, and 60 percent of adolescents in Argentina drop out of high school. Given such statistics, is it really possible for Latin America to reach the goal of providing quality education for all by 2015?

/ARTS WEEKLY/CUBA: A Refuge for World Dance

Much of the history of dance from around the world is found in a little palace of sorts in the Cuban capital. The Museum of Dance holds items ranging from a thread of the shawl that led to dancer Isadora Duncan's death, to documents and photographs, to dance costumes from the most remote regions of the planet.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ BRAZIL: Age Hasn’t Slowed the Multi-Talented Chico Buarque

Composer, novelist, playwright, singer- songwriter and amateur footballer at 60, Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, or simply ''Chico'', is the image of ''national unanimity'' for the Brazilian people.

POLITICS-MALAWI: Inching Towards That 30 Percent Target

Slowly but surely, Malawi’s women are making their presence felt in the country’s traditionally male-dominated political arena.

RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: Ending Discrimination No Easy Task

A conference on South Africa’s equality courts has highlighted the challenges of undoing centuries of racial and cultural prejudice.

EDUCATION-AFRICA: Breaking the Link Between Pregnancy and Dropping Out

Teenage pregnancy has often dealt a mortal blow to the educational aspirations of girls in Africa. But, laws compelling schools to re-admit these young mothers could hold the key to solving this problem.

PAKISTAN: Domestic Violence Case Highlights Malaise in Society

More than four months after her in-laws amputated her legs from knees down on the pretext that she was in an adulterous relationship, Musarrat Sultana Shaheen lies in hospital in the northern Pakistani city of Lahore.

MIGRATION-U.S.: Latinos or Chaos

If all the people of Latin American origin were to disappear from the United States, where they represent around 14 percent of the population of 290 million, chaos likely would ensue.

CULTURE-ARGENTINA: Spanish, the Divided Language

Academics, writers, artists and social organisations in Argentina defend linguistic diversity and accuse the Royal Spanish Academy of trying to ''appropriate'' the Spanish language.

INDIA: Alleged Assassination Plot Saves Chief Minister His Job

It is grim irony that if Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat responsible for the anti-Muslim pogrom there in 2002, gets to keep his job, it will be because four Muslims were gunned down this month by police on suspicion of planning to assassinate him.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: Japan, Jamaica Grow Closer with One Love

Reggae music boomed from the stage, but the energetic singer was a slim Japanese youth. The aroma of Jamaican jerk chicken filled the air, but the cook was a robust, shaven-headed Tokyoite.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-CHILE: The Inti Illimani ‘Trademark’ War

Inti Illimani, the name of a folk music group that has made history in Chile and around the world as proponents of Latin America's ''New Song'' movement, is today the focus of a heated dispute between its founding members.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ FILM-BRAZIL: Motorcycle Ride with Che

''Forget about me when I turn 18 because I'm going to do the same as Che,'' a 12-year-old boy in Brazil tells his mother after seeing ''The Motorcycle Diaries'', a film about the revolutionary leader Ernesto Guevara as a twenty-something - which has won applause from audiences in movie houses across the country.

RIGHTS-BENIN: Polygamy Somewhat Out of Bounds – If Not Out of Fashion

The merits of monogamy and polygamy have come under vigorous discussion in Benin recently, with the passage of a law that encourages the first - but tolerates the second.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Muslims Experience Increasing Racist Attacks

Aminah was coming back from work and had to use the public bus in this northern Australian city. She was wearing the 'hijab' or Islamic head covering and a man sitting in the front seat, facing her, seemed agitated.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Bringing the Protocols to the People

An association of churches, donor organisations and other groups has unveiled a plan to acquaint Sudanese communities with peace protocols that have been signed to end their country's long-running civil war.

FOOTBALL-PORTUGAL: Beer Overflows Eurocup

In the Portuguese resort town of Albufeira, the owners of bars along the Sá Carneiro coastal strip and downtown Da Oura avenue say their receipts have averaged 22,000 dollars a day since the start of the Euro 2004 football tournament on Jun. 12.

JAPAN: Audiences Switching from Western to Asian TV Programmes

Nothing will persuade Michiko Suda, a 38- year-old homemaker, to leave home on Saturday evenings when her favourite drama is showing on television.

THAILAND: Hardcore Gamblers Tarnish Country’s Buddhist Image

Thailand's voracious appetite for gambling has not been spoilt despite recent outrage from some quarters over the harmful consequences of this habit.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Upbeat on Globalisation, Although Southern Africa Lags

Africans feel relatively positive about globalisation and the United States, although the enthusiasm for both is markedly weaker among Southern Africans and Tanzanians than among people in other parts of the continent, according to a major survey of seven sub-Saharan African nations.