MEDIA-PHILIPPINES: Citizen Journalism Gets Public Involved

Television news images of a phony policeman on a motorcycle escorting a sedan travelling against the flow of traffic – submitted by a passing motorist – is a sign of the changing face of journalism and public involvement in the Philippines.

BRAZIL: Football Paves the Way to Masculinity Without Violence

It’s Friday night, and in a "favela" (shanty town) in this Brazilian city, a group of men relax with a beer after a hard week, while a song can be heard above the rowdy chatter.

PAKISTAN: Swat Valley’s Festival Speaks Up for Peace

The threats against officials and ordinary people alike have not stopped, with yet another suicide bomber sowing terror in the district’s main town just on Jul. 15.

CHINA: A Year After Xinjiang Riots, Ethnic Tensions Simmer

More than a year after the riots in China’s remote Xinjiang autonomous region, the country’s bloodiest ethnic clash in decades, calm has returned to the capital Urumqi. But the underlying tensions remain – tensions that Beijing will be forced to address as it moves forward in its campaign to develop the country’s west.

MALAWI: Women Candidates Desperate to Finance Freebies for Voters

Mable Malinda wants to contest the local government elections but the independent candidate who is using her life savings to fund her campaign only has 500 dollars left in her bank account. She has already spent three times as much buying handouts for voters – an unofficial requirement when contesting elections in Malawi.

More Than 200 Ways of Becoming a Mother

"You can only have one mother," as the saying goes, but in Brazil there are 215 ways of becoming a mother, one for each of the ethnic groups in this South American country. Promoting maternal health while respecting cultural traditions is a major health challenge.

THAILAND: For Transgenders, Identity Papers Are No Simple Matter

In New Zealand, where Sujinrat Prachathai enjoys resident status, she is a woman able to append ‘Mrs’ to her name to signify that she is married. Here in Thailand, however, she has to be addressed as ‘Mr’ since she is still considered male even though she underwent a sex-change operation years ago.

SPORTS: Power and Passion Put Football Above the Law

The FIFA Football World Cup is presented -- and felt emotionally by millions -- as a contest amongst countries in which national honour is at stake. But it is also a private business, controlled by a small group of people who exploit patriotism and foment rivalries in marketing the "product."

INDIA: ‘Green Cremation’ Gets A Second Look

Unmindful of the monsoons lashing the Dehradun area in the Himalayan foothills in northern India, Girdhari Singh returns from work daily with a headload of wood that he finds along the road, and stacks it to dry in the cattleshed.

Football Leaves Legacy of Hope in Namibia

Throughout the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, organisers have insisted that the legacy of the event goes far beyond the sporting spectacle. In the dusty streets of a Windhoek township, Deon Namiseb believes this is true.

Controversy Dogs Brazil’s Racial Equality Law

The Statute of Racial Equality, soon to be signed into law in Brazil, is at the centre of a controversy between those who consider it a historical achievement, like the abolition of slavery in 1888, and those who see it as failing to satisfy the demands of the black movement.

SWAZILAND: Women MPs Limited by the Patriarchal System

Minah Ndzinisa spends every day selling fruit and vegetables at the outdoor Mbabane Market, braving the rain, wind and cold for almost 20 years. "I was in the same cold even in the 1990s when we used to have only one woman Member of Parliament."

THAILAND: Sexuality 101 Exhibit Says It Straight

Teenage boys gape at a coloured photograph of a vagina, while girls give embarrassed smiles as they watch a cartoon that showed penises 'talking' about masturbation. Young girls crowd around a display panel about love and relationships, as a boy embraces a female mannequin with all his might in order to measure the strength of his hug.

PAKISTAN: More Action, Less Words, Needed to Ease Population Bulge

While militancy, power outages and skyrocketing food prices hog the limelight in parliamentary and media discussions in Pakistan, health experts warn that it is a neglected issue – the population bulge – that will prove to be a more insidious problem.

RIGHTS-THAILAND: Imam’s Widow Takes on Legal System in South

She is better known for her cooking, her hospitality and her soft-spoken demeanour in this southern region torn apart by an insurgency. But now, 52- year-old Nima Kaseng is heading for a bigger, more public role – as a crusader for justice.

ARGENTINA: Poorest First Served with Free Digital TV

In contrast to what has happened in most countries that have switched from analogue to digital television, in Argentina the technological leap has begun with the poorest households.

IOC Joins U.N. to Level the Playing Field for Women

The sight of girls and boys playing cricket and skateboarding together in the streets of Afghanistan and Iraq may be unexpected to some, but it is a homegrown effort aimed at fostering gender equality.

PAKISTAN: The Other Side Of World Cup Footballs

England coach Fabio Capello has bemoaned the unpredictable trajectory of the Jabulani World Cup ball, calling it "the worst ball"in the history of the tournament. But labour rights groups have a greater complaint.

CHINA: Cyberlives Thrive Under the State’s Watchful Eyes

Twenty-four-year-old Li Jun sits where he sits most nights of the week, in front of a computer in his local Internet cafe in the east of the Chinese capital, playing ‘World of Warcraft'.

UGANDA: Too Young to Know, Yet Too Young to Die

Thirteen-year-old Jacinta Okello and her fellow primary school classmates call it "doing bad manners". But when you ask her what she knows about sex, she breaks into a shy smile, looks to her feet and giggles.

LITERATURE-CUBA: ‘Forbidden Stories’ by Sonia Rivera-Valdes

Lázara wakes up every morning in her home in New York, has a cup of coffee and, with the same passion with which she takes a stand for or against every cause, she turns on the radio, hoping to hear the news that she has been waiting for most of her life: the demise of former Cuban president Fidel Castro.