/ARTS WEEKLY/BRAZIL: Bitter Comics Win Awards, But Not Readers

Lourenço Mutarelli is a one-of-a-kind graphic artist, a creator of comics for adults, with a unique taste for tough environments, the urban underworld and dark humour. His strange universe has earned him many awards, but not much of a following.

/ARTS WEEKLY/SWAZILAND: Popularity of Beauty Pageants Grows

The riotous protests against beauty pageants in West Africa have barely been noticed, much less influenced, the popularity of pageants promoting the attractions of Swazi women and even men in this small Southern African kingdom. Beauty pageants are more popular than ever, and their supporters say they are necessary both as entertainment events in a country where entertainments are few, and as a way to showcase local talent.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BRITAIN: Fine Story, If Not Pretty

The once small stream of illegal immigrants coming to Western Europe and particularly the United Kingdom is now turning into a flood.

/ARTS WEEKLY/INDONESIA: Singer Draws Fans – and Religious Wrath

It is not her the picture of her dancing with Taufik Keimas, the husband of President Megawati Sukarnoputri - or her singing - that sparks so much controversy. It is the way Inul Daratista dances that does.

POLITICS: War on Iraq Helps Mahathir Stand Tall in Muslim World

Thanks to Washington's plans for an attack on Iraq, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been gifted with a political platform to prove that he is a Muslim leader with a backbone, unlike other leaders of countries in the Islamic world.

MIDEAST: Islamic Nations’ Meet Shows Disagreement amid Iraq Crisis

The spat between old rivals Iraq and Kuwait at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting on Wednesday exposed the divisions within the 56-member forum that prevent it from speaking forcefully as one - even during one of its most serious crises.

IRAQ-ITALY: Activists Join Catholics in Fasting for Peace

While activists in Italy joined Catholics in fasting for peace and against a war in Iraq on Wednesday, the first day of Lent, in response to a call by Pope John Paul II, the pontiff's peace campaign has begun to run up against limitations on the political front.

CANADA: Hollywood Budget Boost Revives Fears of Culture Sell-out

The ongoing struggle to preserve Canadian distinctiveness and artistic expression in face of the cultural monolith south of the nation's border received a new setback with the latest national budget from Finance Minister John Manley, according to many people here.

EDUCATION-PAKISTAN: Model Religious Schools Aim for Modernity

There was a time when young Kanwal Nisar's aspiration of becoming a lawyer would have raised eyebrows in this Pakistani city.

CULTURE-POLITICS-U.S.: As War Looms, Artists Unite in Opposition

Artists opposed to a new war with Iraq are finding creative ways to mobilise popular dissent, including public readings of pacifist plays and poetry from modern and ancient times.

IRAQ-ITALY: Vatican Deploys Media Forces against War

The legions of Pope John Paul II have been deployed to the battlefield to silence the drums of a war in Iraq, an army of tens of thousands of pacifists backed by the powerful Roman Catholic communications media in Italy.

/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE-KENYA: Revisiting Chilean Playwright’s Work

''How can those who tortured and those who were tortured coexist in the same land?'' Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman asked when writing 'Death and the Maiden' in 1991.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-THAILAND: Transvestite Boxer Back in Limelight

Mention the name 'Nong Toom' here and most Thais seem to know who she is, this strikingly beautiful woman, with a curvaceous body and graceful gestures to match.

/ARTS WEEKLY/DANCE-ARGENTINA: The Great Tango Party

The Argentine capital is shimmering as the host of the Fifth Buenos Aires Tango Festival and the first Tango Dance World Championship, a competition that has drawn 260 couples from more than 20 countries.

POLITICS-SOUTH ASIA: Cricket is War by Other Means

No sporting event can better prove the Orwellian thesis - that games between national teams are a ''continuation of war by other means'' - than a clash on the cricket pitch between eternal rivals India and Pakistan.

PAKISTAN: Gov’t Squirms as Religious Parties Protest War on Iraq

The weekend show of strength by religious parties in the southern port city of Karachi is making Pakistan's government extremely uncomfortable, coming at a time when it is trying to keep a low profile on the issue of the looming U.S. attack against Iraq.

INDONESIA: Five Months Later, Bali Still Picking up Pieces

Nearly five months after the Bali bombing, the site of the blasts is curiously clean, areas of emptiness in stark contrast to the maze of stores, cafes and hotels that have long marked Indonesia's idyllic - and now wounded - haven for tourists.

PHILIPPINES: Rice is Life, But Devalued in Modern Society

Rice is food and drink, and medicine. Rice is ritual and remembrance. Rice is ornamental. Rice is history. It is the lifeblood of the Philippines, but needs to be saved from being devalued to just a plant in today's fast-paced, consumerist society, artists and cultural experts say.

POLITICS-INDIA: Communal Politics Defeated in State Poll

The pro-Hindu juggernaut unleashed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India's Gujarat state in December has run out of steam in northern Himachal Pradesh state, where a professedly secular party won in results announced Saturday.

CAMBODIA: War Crimes Trial about Justice – and Preserving History

Both at work and at home, Pen Samitthy faces an uncomfortable truth: Cambodia, is losing interest in the acts of genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge during its four-year rule in the late 1970s.

INDONESIA: Shift to ‘Shariah’ Reflects Growing Frustrations

The Cipanas hot spring here in West Java, Indonesia, is a teeming bustle of hotels, restaurants, tourist buses, and handicrafts shops that draws jobseekers and local entrepreneurs, but it is also the subject of a raging debate over 'shariah' or Islamic law.