/ARTS WEEKLY/SPORT: For Pacific, Rules Blunt Rugby Challenge

The three South Pacific nations leading the islander challenge at the Rugby World Cup, which kicks off here Friday, are blaming the International Rugby Board (IRB) for depleting their sides - a charge so heated that Pacific leaders included it into the political communiqué of their August meeting.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM: Balancing Wildlife Conservation with Human Survival

This year's Toronto International Environmental Film and Video Festival explores how African environmental and conservation issues, such as the bush meat trade, are deeply intertwined with the continent's cultural and political realities.

POLITICS-SWAZILAND: Women Fight for a Place in the Constitution

The Swaziland branch of Women in Law in Southern Africa is concerned that guarantees of women's rights that were announced in the draft constitution, soon to be ratified by King Mswati, are not as secure as first thought.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Religious Groups Lead the Way in Caring for AIDS Orphans

The role that religious organisations can play in helping communities to care for children affected by AIDS has been receiving greater attention since the 13th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa.

MUSIC-ARGENTINA: Gardel and the Raging Debate on His Origins

Tango icon Carlos Gardel smiles down from murals painted all over the historic neighbourhood of Abasto in the Argentine capital, and from photos on the walls of the restaurant that carries his name, on Gardel street, as if he were enjoying the raging debate on the mysteries surrounding his life.

INDIA: Conviction Offers Peek into Links Between Film, Crime

The nexus between India's glitzy, multi-billion-dollar film industry and the underworld was on display once again after a movie financier was convicted this week by a special court that handles organised crime.

HEALTH: Male Circumcision, HIV’s Missing Link?

The perceived correlation between low HIV infection and male circumcision is one area that AIDS researchers are yet to be convinced about.

CULTURE: South African Wins the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature

The award of this year's Nobel Prize for literature to the South African novelist and linguist John Maxwell Coetzee is the cherry on top for the country's writers this year.

U.S.: Bush Nominates Conservative for UNESCO Post

On the eve of Hurricane Isabel in mid-September, President George W. Bush quietly nominated as ambassador to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Louise V. Oliver, a right-wing political activist and former president of a controversial political action committee, GOPAC, founded by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

POLITICS-U.S.: It’s the Policy, Stupid

A blue-ribbon panel on U.S. public diplomacy is calling on President George W Bush not only to sharply increase funding to more effectively explain U.S. policy to an increasingly hostile Islamic world, but also to narrow the gap between U.S. values and what Washington actually does in the region.

RIGHTS-SENEGAL: Wedding Night Death Sparks Debate on Domestic Violence

Dieynaba Hamady Sow, 12, died on May 31 from haemorrhaging caused by sexual intercourse on her wedding night after she was forced to marry her 35-year-old cousin.

CULTURE: UNESCO Welcomes US, For a Few Dollars More

The return of the United States to UNESCO as a full member is both good and bad news, diplomats and commentators say.

CULTURE-KENYA: The Last Stand Against Modernity

When prominent personalities die in Kenya, modernity and tradition clash. Most of the times, the conflict is about observing cultural rites.

PAKISTAN: Arrests Put Spotlight on Reforms in Religious Schools

While Islamic schools and government officials remain in a tussle over 19 Asian students recently arrested for supposed links to terrorist groups, these detentions have put the spotlight back on the issue of reforms in Pakistan's religious schools.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: Producer Pioneered Reggae Forerunner, ‘Rocksteady’

When Jamaican record producer Kenneth Khouri died of heart failure here Sep. 20, aged 86, there was little mention of his passing in the local media. Indeed, it was three days later that his death was first reported.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BRITAIN: First of Asian Pop is Now a Touching Memory

If you are old enough, or let us say you were a youngster from South Asia a while back, you would know that first of the Asian pops.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ MUSIC-BRAZIL: The Weight of a Legacy

Maria Rita released her first album at age 26, unlike other singers and musicians with famous parents who had records on the market when they were still practically adolescents.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ARGENTINA: Big Orchestra, Little Musicians

The children squirm and laugh until the instructor counts to three. Then they turn their attention to the musical score in front of them and, with their cellos held just so, they begin to play a few bars of music, repeating it over and over again - just like professional musicians do.

RIGHTS: U.S. Must Fight ‘Islamaphobia’, Says U.N. Official

The United States needs to ''confront'' the spread of ''Islamaphobia and Arabophobia'', a senior U.N. human rights official warned Monday.

CULTURE-AFRICA: Cultural Stereotypes Remain Major Hurdles in AIDS Battle

In a remote village in South Nyanza District, western Kenya, Lawrence Orawa is known as "jater", (loosely translated as widow cleanser). His work is to perform a sexual act with women whose husbands have passed away, a ritual meant to "cleanse" the home and chase away "evil spirits".

POLITICS: Debate Goes from ‘War on Terror’ to Anti-U.S. Sentiment

An unintended but positive spin-off of the Iraq War has been a shift in the debate from the 'war on terrorism' to anti-U.S. sentiment.