ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Dam Turns into Election Issue

The decommissioning of north-eastern Tripura's only hydroelectric power project, the Dambur Dam, has become a major election issue in this insurgency-affected and communist-ruled Indian state.

RELIGION-INDIA: Hindu Fundamentalists Threaten More Mosques

A Hindu fundamentalist group close to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and responsible for the demolition 10 years ago of a 16th century mosque, warned Wednesday that it would lay claim to mosques across India built over demolished Hindu temples by past Muslim invaders.

RELIGION-MIDEAST: Politics, Protests at Haj Closely Watched

This year's Haj, or Great Pilgrimage to Mecca, is about prayers, but may well attract politics and protests too, because it is happening ahead of an expected U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

SPORTS: Britain, Australia Using Cricket to Demonise Zimbabwe – Mbeki

South African President, Thabo Mbeki, has accused Britain and Australia of trying to use the cricket world cup to wage a campaign to isolate the government of Zimbabwe.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: North America, Europe Lead Bob Marley Bash

Music festivals in North America and Europe dominate celebrations to mark reggae pioneer Bob Marley's 58th birthday this month, including a landmark session at one of the United States' most vaunted institutions.

/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-MEXICO: New Refuge for Persecuted Writers

Mexico will open its second refuge for foreign writers and artists in the city of Puebla, near the capital, continuing the country's tradition of providing safe haven for the persecuted.

/ARTS WEEKLY: Making African Movie Painstaking Task for Western Filmmakers

Making an authentic-looking African movie is a painstaking task for Western filmmakers. Too often, they bow to pressure from cautious financiers and insurance companies and choose a safe location like South Africa, even though the film is set thousands of kilometres away on the other side of the continent.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BRITAIN: This Play’s Not the Thing

As with so much you wait for, the waiting was more interesting than the happening. Salman Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children', winner of the Booker of Bookers, was no more the novel, and never quite a play in its adaptation for stage in London.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Autonomy for Tribal Folk A Step for Peace

India's creation Monday of an autonomous council for the Bodo tribals is expected go a long way in meeting their aspirations and bringing peace to a fertile, trouble-torn area sandwiched by the Bhutanese border and the Brahmaputra river in north-eastern Assam state.

RELIGION-FRANCE: Move to Block Arab Money for Muslims

The French government is considering an end to a century-old separation of state and religion in order to reduce the Arab hold over its Muslims.

RELIGION-SERBIA: Nationalism Gathers Around Church

The Serbian Orthodox Church finds itself at the heart of a new nationalism.

PAKISTAN: Gutsy Street Theatre Groups Drive Social Change

Once upon a time there was a tyrant king who wanted oil from an oil merchant. To win public support, he accused the oil merchant of possessing dangerous matches, which could be used to light the oil and destroy the king's domain.

THAILAND: Buddhist Nuns Live in between Religious, Secular Worlds

Thai Buddhist nuns find themselves falling in between two realms - they are often considered religious people by many in this mainly Buddhist country, but are considered lay by the religious.

POLITICS-INDIA: Naga Peace Deepens Ethnic Wedge

When leaders of a group fighting for an independent Nagaland state in India's volatile north-east arrived on Indian soil after 37 years of exile early January, it was seen as a breakthrough in resolving one of the world's oldest ethnic conflicts.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-MIDEAST: Finding Humour amid The Sadness

As the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues to spiral towards disaster few would - or could - find humour in this daily cycle of violence.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-CHILE: The Eternal Temptation of Christ

"The Last Temptation of Christ", the film by Martin Scorsese that is part of film libraries around the world, is only now making its debut in Chile, after a long legal battle against censorship that went as far as the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.

/ARTS WEEKLY/INDIA: Kolkata ‘Orphaned’ By Archaeological Finds

India's bustling eastern metropolis, which in 1990 celebrated the 300th year of its 'founding' by British colonialists with much fanfare, is looking for a new birthday.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-KENYA: Fireside Tales

It is a scene that has become all too familiar in Kenya in recent months. The dancing crowd sing ''Without Moi, everything is possible'', holding high yellow posters of their new president, Mwai Kibaki.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: ‘City of God’ Shows Sins of the Slums

It was a case that the white people in the seaside city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, could not crack. Who were the children holding up banks, pointing guns, selling dope and facing death with a cold, hard stare?

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-CENTRAL AMERICA: ‘Papaya’ Women to Lift their Voices

The Papaya Orchestra, the first and only regional jazz and folk group, is rehearsing for its next album, which will highlight women vocalists from each of the seven Central American countries.

POLITICS: Thai-Cambodia Crisis Shows Old Hurts, Resentment

This week's anti-Thai riots in Cambodia have exposed how a lethal brew made up of simmering resentment of Thailand's role as the heavyweight in the region, and what looks like a dose of miscommunication, can combine to bring bilateral ties from normal to downright hostile.