PARAGUAY: Afro-Descendants Affirm Their Identity

Black communities have for the most part remained out of sight and out of mind in Paraguay, but now they are organising and claiming equal economic and social rights, while building an Afro-Paraguayan identity.

ASIA: ‘Post-Disaster Psychosocial Support a Must for Children’

When disaster strikes, acute stress disorders, especially among children, may follow. Yet the need for early psychosocial interventions is often overlooked, if not ignored.

CULTURE-INDIA: Globalised Ice Cream Please, Big Scoop

"Passport Please." That's what everyone thought they'd ask if you queued up at that exclusive new ice cream shop in one of those smart new malls of fashionable south Delhi.

LAOS: Getting Women in the News Takes Much More than Policy

Women’s empowerment may be a key policy of the Lao government, but this is far from obvious in this South-east Asian country’s newspapers and publications, many of which usually give more space to government pronouncements by male officials and pass on questionable stereotypes of women in their reportage.

SOUTH SUDAN: Changing of the Guard

An old rite is long overdue in Paul Yugusak Tombe’s home village, in Central Equatoria State, south Sudan.

AUSTRALIA: Sydney Festival Offers a Glimmer of Human Connectedness

In a world beset with conflict, natural disasters and economic crisis, the 2010 Sydney Festival has been a celebration of human connectedness, bringing together 1,500 artists from 30 countries, who are performing to an audience of a million over a period of three weeks, beginning on Jan. 9.

ARTS: Cuban Musicians Resuming U.S. Performances

New York City recently hosted its first Cuban band in five years, after the group Septeto Nacional became the first to win a visa that allowed it to accept a booking there.

INDIA: Hill Women Form Cooperative, Turn Entrepreneurs

Women in Uttarkashi district of the hill state of Uttarakhand in India, traditionally sidelined from the developmental processes, are forming their own cooperative and producing processed food items, giving big multinational brands a run for their money in local markets.

CULTURE: ‘Understanding Diversity Can Help Avoid Clashes’

The International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures (2010) has not had an auspicious start.

DEVELOPMENT: Integration Key to Easing Migration Tensions

Greater interaction and integration are crucial to easing social tensions in countries that are host to a growing number of migrants, experts say.

DEVELOPMENT-CAMBODIA: Minority Languages Face Extinction

One of Cambodia’s oldest languages – S’aoch – appears headed for extinction in the next decade. Other languages spoken by its minority people are lining up to take the place of the 6,000-year-old language in the most endangered category.

MEXICO: Activists Worried About “Secret” Internet Treaty

An international treaty to combat copyright infringement and piracy, being negotiated by Mexico and other countries, could curtail expansion of the internet, violate people's rights to privacy and freedom of expression, and undermine multilateral accords on intellectual property, activists warn.

MALAYSIA: Religious Intolerance Threatens Secular Foundation

Days of simmering religious tension over a New Year’s Eve court ruling allowing Catholics to use the Arabic word ‘Allah’ to denote the Christian God have boiled over after unknown individuals tried to burn down three churches in the capital.

PAKISTAN: War-Displaced Lament Poor Conditions

Wracked by intense violence in 2009, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, which persists to this day.

TURKEY: Peace May Come to Pass in 2010

With newfound liberties for the Kurdish minority and the government's ‘Democratic Opening' initiative the prospects for peace in 2010 are brighter than they have been in the last 25 years. The fly in the ointment is the ban in December of the pro-Kurd, Democratic Society Party (DTP).

PAKISTAN: ‘Eye for an Eye’ Judgment Hailed, Denounced

For Fazeelat Bibi, 21, the last few days of 2009 have brought her some retribution, if not cheer. "Justice has been delivered," said the young woman, her voice void of any feelings.

POLITICS: Indonesia Mourns the Passing of a Beloved Leader

The news about fourth Indonesian president and cleric Abdurrahman Wahid being admitted to the hospital last week merited only a passing mention in the national media. It was overshadowed by reports on the country’s tumultuous political situation, such as allegations that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was involved in a banking scandal and the controversies hounding the country’s corruption eradication agency.

CANADA: Olympics, 21st Century Style

Restrictions on art displays and signage critical of the upcoming February 2010 Winter Olympics and the creation of a massive high-tech security network are putting a damper in some residents' minds on what should be a celebratory sports extravaganza in Vancouver.

DEVELOPMENT: Filipino Communities Turn Trash Into Cash

Days after the New Year's Eve revelry dies down, expect colorful lanterns or wreaths to remain hanging on the windows of many Filipino homes – part of a tradition in this South-east Asian country known to have the longest Yuletide celebration in the world.

SRI LANKA: A Nation Struggles to Forget a Tragedy

Waves hitting a train and carriages half submerged in water. Scores of men, women and children leaping above the water, hands outstretched, bodies strewn all over.

LEBANON: Hip-hop Kindles Hopes in Destroyed Refugee Camp

The hip-hop beats ringing through the muddy, unlit streets of this burnt-out Palestinian refugee camp seem incongruous. But the rhymes are camp-grown - and courageous.