RELIGION-SRI LANKA: Buddhist Temples Go Down Development Path

Dynamic Buddhist monks and progressive temple managements in this predominantly Buddhist country are getting more involved in more worldly concerns, by treading a new path down a development agenda.

/Int’l Day of Indigenous People/ENVIRONMENT-INDONESIA: Oil Palm Industry a Threat to Tribe

Mugiono, head of the village of Tanjung Lebar, can recall a past when he and his people freely roamed the lush Sumatran forest in Indonesia. Today the Anak Dalam, a traditionally nomadic tribe, find themselves shut out of an ecosystem they have been a part of for generations.

/Int’l Day of Indigenous People/ENVIRONMENT-INDONESIA: Remote Sumatran Tribe Struggles to Survive

At first glance the structure, with bamboo walls and a roof of thatched coconut palm leaves, looked uninhabited. Inside however were the figures of sleeping children, who did not remain asleep for long.

RELIGION-MALAYSIA: Debate Rages on ‘E-divorce’

A strange mixture of 'shariah' laws and mobile phone technology, which recently ended an 18-month marriage, has sparked a fierce debate in Malaysia on how Islamic law should be enforced in marriage affairs.

/ARTS WEEKLY/INDIA: Astrologers, Seismologists Put their Heads Together

The worlds of astrologers and seismologists are normally poles apart, but not at a recent workshop in India where they tried to combine their divergent disciplines to forecast earthquakes and natural disasters.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-UGANDA: Beauty with a Purpose

The turn-up to beauty pageants, which the majority of Ugandans used to frown on, now includes professionals, cabinet ministers and even religious leaders.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: Fragments Create a Unique Whole

A slow, monotonous beginning gives way to surprising plot turns in "O homem que copiava" (The Man Who Copied), the latest film by Brazilian director Jorge Furtado.

CULTURE-MALAWI: Hunger Promotes Underage Marriage

Vyalema Mwakasungura (not real name) has always harboured one ambition: to become a nurse.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Religious Leaders Wary of Unified Personal Law

India’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the pious intention of introducing uniform marriage, divorce and succession laws for this country of one billion people with different religions, but has done little to win the confidence of minority Muslims and Christians or even large sections of the majority Hindus.

RELIGION-CANADA: Visa Restriction Upsets the Church

Over 800 delegates, who attended a church conference in Canada, have begun returning home without the chance of meeting their 35 colleagues from Africa and Asia who were denied visa.

ASIA: Globalisation Erodes Local Languages, Fuels ‘Glocal’ English

A continent that contains a third of the world's spoken codes - and yet one whose astonishing diversity of speech and written systems - is being eroded by relentless globalisation. That, in a nutshell, is the ethnolinguist's lament for Asia.

CULTURE-GHANA: Musician Changes her Tune

She used to sing on television in the late 1980s, then a student, preaching love and patience and understanding among lovers and all people of the world.

ARTS WEEKLY/ARGENTINA: Art Becomes an Investment Option

The fine arts market is an increasingly attractive option for the portion of the Argentine middle class that has maintained its savings and investment capacity. These art lovers are opting to purchase a painting instead of trusting their cash to a bank or risking it on the stock market.

/ARTS WEEKLY/US: Exhibit Holds Mirror to Follies of U.S. ‘Empire’

The U.S. public may be happily impervious to world opinion - only about 14 percent even hold passports - but a new museum exhibit here forcefully brings home the good, bad and ugly perceptions that define the last "superpower" for the other six billion people on the planet.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-PAKISTAN: Reviving the ‘Rabab’ Far from Easy

According to sixty-something Gul Mohammad, the 'rabab' is the 'king of Pashto music', and without this traditional string instrument, "Pashto music would be lifeless".

/ARTS WEEKLY/MALAYSIA: Support Grows for Fined Theatre Group

The muzzling of the works of a popular theatre group, whose satirical spoofs about Malaysia's politics and politicians were drawing in the crowds, is generating a backlash of protest from arts groups, activists and patrons alike.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Church Asks Mediators to Ensure Lasting Peace

The church has appealed to the mediators of Sudanese peace talks not to abandon the process even after a final deal is signed in August or later this year.

RIGHTS-THAILAND: Fear of Expulsion Haunts Hill Tribes

The wrinkles on Avu Mae's face have come with age and with worry. The trouble that haunts the 60-year-old grandmother is her future in this village, spread out on the gentle slopes of a mountain in northern Thailand.

POLITICS-US: Poll Reveals New Surge in Anti-Islam Sentiments

A growing number of U.S. citizens perceive Islam as a religion that encourages violence, according to a new study on religion and politics conducted by the Pew Research Centre and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

RELIGION-EGYPT: 88,000 Mosques, One Sermon

The same official sermon will be delivered in 88,000 mosques across Egypt from this week. The government move is a part of extensive new censorship, and penalization for mosques and preachers that do not toe the official line.

RELIGION-AFRICA: Big Brother Show Irritates the Church

The housemates in the Africa reality show, Big Brother, are getting ready to evict their next housemate. But in Zambia, the church is campaigning to get the whole show "evicted" of the national television because it is "immoral" and "unAfrican".