THAILAND: Temple Buzzes with the Buddha’s teachings – and IT

Thai Buddhist monks usually return from their alms rounds to quiet surroundings to pray or study the Buddha's teachings, but in a temple here they also come back to a familiar sight: a tangled mountain of computers, monitors and peripherals.

POLITICS-CAMBODIA: Identity Crisis Surfaces after Anti-Thai Riots

Since the anti-Thai violence here in late January, Saray Andeth finds himself caught between two distinct emotional poles - his loyalty to his native Cambodia on the one hand, and his gratitude toward neighbouring Thailand on the other.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: Legendary Reggae Producer Sings His Way to Surprise

When the name Lee "Scratch" Perry pops up, it is usually for his work as a producer. But on Feb. 23, when the diminutive Perry won the Grammy Award for best reggae album, it was his singing that earned him music's biggest prize.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-INDIA: Sequel Recreates Celluloid Magic

Those mesmerised by the 1969 classic by the late, celebrated Bengali filmmaker Satyajjit Ray, 'Aranyer Din Ratri' (Days and Nights in the Forest), can look forward to a fitting sequel complete with some of the main cast of actors - now older by 33 years.

/ARTS WEEKLY/IRAQ: A Conflict Plays Out on the Canvas

When you clip the wings of the angel of peace, that too is a demonstration against war. That demonstration comes in a painting by Iraqi artist Hani Mazhar in his latest work 'Between the Elm and the Palm Tree' on exhibition in London.

/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-CHILE: Rediscovering Gabriela Mistral, Despite Pinochet

The annulment in Chile of a decree from the era of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship could lead to the release of previously unpublished texts by Chilean poet and Nobel Literature laureate Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), and the revelation of aspects of her life that were never before made public.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-DR CONGO: Arrest Exposes Plight of Immigrants

The arrest of Congolese musician Shungu Wemabdio, popularly known as Papa Wemba, has exposed the plight of young Congolese seeking greener pastures overseas.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-ARGENTINA: Thousands of Youth Aspire to Singing Stardom

More than 12,000 young Argentines, ages 16 to 25, went through the first audition recently for a new "reality TV" programme that promises two places among the firmament of popstars.

INDIA: Warnings of Religious War Underscore Communal Politics

With flowing white locks, beards and the saffron robes that mark them as Hindu holy men, they marched to Parliament in the Indian capital Monday to demand legislation that would enable them to finally possess the land on which they claim their warrior god Ram was born 10,000 years ago.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Latest Crackdown Undercuts Tribals’ Struggle

The long history of people's movements and Marxist governments in India's southern Kerala state has now been thrown to the wind after police, supported by settlers, brutally crushed a movement by tribals trying to assert traditional rights over forest land.

/ARTS WEEKLY/U.S.: Uncle Sam, Uncle Ben and the Ironies of Propaganda

The U.S. government is on a propaganda offensive designed to blunt a presumed rush to anti-U.S. terrorism and to convince publics - especially in Arab and Muslim countries - that the land of the free is also the home of the tolerant.

ARGENTINA: Survivors of Warship Wreck Welcome Nat’l Geo Expedition

A majority of the survivors of the 1982 sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by the British navy support the National Geographic Society's search for the wreck in the south Atlantic.

HEALTH: Bhutan Aims to be First Country to Ban Tobacco

Smoking will soon be forbidden in Bhutan, the 'Land of the Thunder Dragon' that has set itself the goal of becoming the first nation on earth to introduce a complete ban on tobacco use.

/ARTS WEEKLY/VIETNAM: Ancient Temple Towers Bring the Past Back

Sculptor Thanh Van Suong is poring over old documents and listening to legends in an effort to recreate sacred statues, working to bring the past back to life in Vietnam.

/ARTS WEEKLY/GERMANY: New Focus on Asian Films

Asian-made movies may not have been among the major winners at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival, but they certainly had a strong impact on audiences during the ten-day film jamboree in the German capital.

/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE-KENYA: Striving to Improve Quality

Frustrated by his inability to find a ''good quality, original Kenyan script'' to stage, theatre director Gichora Mwangi set off for the Robert Redford's Sundance Village in Utah, the United States, last year.

/ARTS WEEKLY/VENEZUELA: Ciudad Bolivar Aspires to Heritage of Humanity

Ciudad Bolívar, formerly known as Angostura and temporary capital of Venezuela as of 1817, will be proposed as a cultural heritage of humanity site under the auspices of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: God Stars in Satire of a Country’s Ills

God is Brazilian. He laughingly laments the mistakes made by the humans he created, he hates performing miracles because it requires "too much effort", and he is looking for a saint to stand in for him while he takes a vacation.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BRITAIN: A Great Passage to India

E.M. Forster's landmark novel 'A Passage to India' is considered to be one of the 20th century's greatest books. Started in 1913 but not completed until after World War I in 1924, the novel is an assured dissection of the dying days of the British Raj.

RIGHTS-INDONESIA: Ethnic Chinese Still Battle State Discrimination

''We're Indonesians. Why do we have to get a citizenship certificate proving that we're Indonesians?'' asks 70-year-old Tjiong Tjoei Liong.

POLITICS: Growing Rift Over U.S. Policies Mirrors Islam’s Divide

For the past 17 months, foreign-policy experts have been telling readers of U.S. newspapers that the world is not experiencing so much a ''clash of civilisations'' between the West and the Islamic world as a civil war between a small minority of extremists and the vast majority of moderate, forward-looking, peaceful Muslims.