Q&A: Exposing the “Masters of the Word” in Latin America

If control of the media was not so heavily concentrated in Latin America, the situation of inequality in the region would be more actively challenged, says Martín Becerra, an Argentine media specialist who presented his latest research study here in the Chilean capital this week.

Training Young Mapuche Filmmakers in Chile

"I want to film the few untouched natural resources we have left and show the injustices that have been committed against our communities," Claura Anchio, who took part in an innovative free filmmaking course for young Mapuche Indians in Chile, told IPS.

PARAGUAY: Football – Dream for Kids, Moneyspinner for Adults

From passion for football, to football as a profession: many parents in Paraguay are hoping this sport will provide a career for their sons, who flood into football schools with the burden of their dreams -- and their parents' demands -- to become sports idols.

Torture – Live and Well in Turkey

Six years after the ruling Justice and Development Party government declared ‘zero tolerance’ for torture, the practice prevails in Turkey, human rights monitors in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeastern region say.

Zarqa Lives Up to al-Zarqawi’s Ideals

Infamous as the hometown of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late al-Qaeda leader, Zarqa is dominated by Islamic parties.

AUSTRALIA: Hijab-Wearing Footballers Oppose FIFA Ban

Sara Aboueid, 15, and Jamillah Noordin, 16, wear uniforms similar to countless numbers of footballers around the world.

Gaza ‘World Cup’ Scores Several Goals

Football is the world's most popular sport, boasting more than an estimated 2 billion fans. And despite its isolation from the world through Israel's four-year- old blockade, the Gaza Strip is no exception. When a football match is on, tea and shisha cafes are packed with people gathered around the TV sets.

KENYA: Successful Weather Prediction Uses Old and New

In the wake of ever-changing climatic conditions, a study in western Kenya has discovered that combining traditional methods of weather prediction with meteorological forecasting is the best way of obtaining more accurate forecast data.

ASIA: Journalists Lament Media Bias vs Ethnic Minorities

Despite issues of discrimination and violence hounding ethnic minorities, they continue to lack ‘voice' in the mainstream press and suffer prejudices from journalists themselves.

EGYPT: New Head of Al-Azhar Quits Party Politics

When Ahmed al-Tayeb, the newly-appointed grand sheikh of Egypt's prestigious Al-Azhar religious institution, relinquished his membership in President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), it carried significance.

CUBA: Keeping the Festival Magic Alive

As the cinema lights switched off, the groups of painters, impromptu filmmakers and craftspeople who filled the parks and plazas of this eastern Cuban town over the past week began to drift away. The musicians who played every night till dawn are gone, and so are the vendors of prawn cocktails, crabmeat pies and roast suckling pig.

CUBA: Children Reach Out Through the Screen to Peers in Post-Quake Haiti

Five girls and five boys are taking time to remember the hurricane that devastated their home town of Gibara in eastern Cuba two years ago, mingling their memories with their dreams, and filming images to make a video message for children in Haiti.

POLITICS: Not Quite Cricket – India’s Most Popular Sport on Trial

Allegations that India’s junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor had swung outsize ‘sweat equity’ for a female friend in a newly floated professional cricket league franchise may have cost him his job, but it may also expose the multi- million dollar India Premium League (IPL) as a massive money-laundering enterprise.

ARGENTINA: “We’re Drowning in Sadness”

The legal battle waged by an indigenous community in northern Argentina against the government over a project that flooded half of their territory highlights the fact that legal title to their land is not enough to overcome the marginalisation they have faced for centuries.

POLITICS-BURMA: Ethnic Rebel Groups Defy Junta’s Order

Burma’s military regime is facing a formidable challenge from ethnic rebel groups that are refusing to kowtow to its order that they join the South-east Asian country’s army as border guard forces.

JORDAN: Women Make Progress But Honour Killings Persist

Earlier this month, a 33-year-old man was charged with hammering his wife to death and dumping her body on the highway leading to the Queen Alia International Airport. The husband confessed to murdering her ''to defend his honour,’’ as she was meeting a male friend.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: How the War Gave Tamil Women More Space

Whenever Sri Lankan rights activist Shereen Xavier attends a meeting related to her work in this war-battered northern capital, she makes sure to be dressed in a sari, a traditional gown worn by South Asian women.

MEDIA: Press Freedom Day to Focus on Threats

"Please remember that we know where your child goes to school."

VENEZUELA: Yanomami Put Body Painting Down on Paper

Men and women of the Yanomami people paint their bodies, drawing straight, curved, dotted and parallel lines, arcs and circles, triangles, rectangles, grids, spider's webs or rings, all arranged as if on a checkerboard.

THAILAND: Anti-Gov’t Protesters Use Cultural Taboo as Weapon

"I know the word; I understand it; I love it," street artist Chuwit Kunasawat said, using his pencil-thin brush, dipped in deep red ink, to paint on the right cheek of an anti-government protester.

WATER-ZAMBIA: Lozi Make Annual Migration to Higher Ground

Josias Akataama spent March watching the moon wane above, and flood waters rise from below. Only with the sighting of the new moon, would the men, women and children of Kandiani know when they could leave the water-logged village for higher ground.