PORTUGAL: Bible Is “A Catalogue of Cruelties,” Says Saramago

After a nearly two-decade truce, Portuguese Nobel literature laureate José Saramago has returned to the charge against the Catholic Church. This time his target is the Bible itself, which he describes as "a manual of bad morals," and a "catalogue of cruelties and of the worst of human nature."

CULTURE-TAIWAN: Film Lets Audiences Revisit Overlooked Past

An overlooked piece of Taiwan’s cultural history is slowly making its way back into people’s hearts and minds with the documentary ‘E Sha Age’, due to be shown this week.

CULTURE: First Woman Head Seeks New Direction for UNESCO

The rapturous applause that greeted Irina Bokova Thursday as she was confirmed UNESCO's new director-general was a sign that the organisation is keen to move on from recent controversies.

Q&A: Africans Won’t Just Be on Receiving End of Arts and Culture

Global initiatives have in recent years stressed the contribution that arts and culture can make to development. This has led African and European artists, bureaucrats and policy makers to increasingly confront the unequal relations in North-South cultural and artistic exchanges.

GERMANY: Rebuilding Controversially Over a Disputed Past

Reconstruction of some of Berlin's historic buildings that were damaged during World War II or by the Communist regime that earlier ruled East Germany, is raising troubling questions about Germany's past, and its future.

EL SALVADOR: An Indigenous Language That Refuses to Die

"Yek shiajfikan" reads a sign hanging above the gate of the "Dr. Mario Calvo Marroquín" elementary school in the Salvadoran town of Izalco, welcoming pupils in Nawat, the language that was spoken by the area’s native communities.

Q&A: The Desire To Be An Outsider

"The old man died beneath the wheels of the twentieth century. There was nothing left but stains, bloodstains and fragments of flesh... And the same thing is happening to my generation." - Dambudzo Marechera, House of Hunger

ARGENTINA: Opposition, Media Giants to Fight New Law

While civil society groups celebrated Argentina's new broadcasting law, media giants threatened to fight it with a wave of lawsuits, and opposition lawmakers pledged to revise it after the next Congress convenes in December.

ARGENTINA: Through the Lens of Young Slum Dwellers

Two dozen young slum dwellers in Buenos Aires began filming a documentary about themselves this month, in an attempt to break down the negative stereotypes with which they are portrayed in the media.

MEDIA: South-South Radio from Caracas to Africa

Poverty, attacks on human rights and corporate fraud will be among the main news coverage focuses of a new regional public radio network, Radio del Sur, which will link stations from South America and Africa.

CUBA: Restoring Historic Santiago for Its People

Even with her house practically in ruins, Isabel García wouldn’t dream of living anywhere else. She’d rather stay where she knows that no matter what corner she turns she’ll always be able to gaze out into the blue sea or raise her eyes up to the green mountains that shelter her beloved city of Santiago, in eastern Cuba.

PAKISTAN: Repeal of Blasphemy Laws Still a Pipe Dream

It is a never-ending saga.

CUBA: There Are No Tough Guys; It’s Tough To Be a Guy

It has been three years since he separated from his second wife and realised he did not have a home to return to. Although he has always been able to count on a helping hand from one friend or another, and his children help him out now and then, Humberto Martínez spends most nights sleeping on a park bench in the Cuban capital.

BALKANS: Ultranationalists Face Ban

Ultranationalist groups behind the violence in Belgrade last month face ban by the Constitutional Court of Serbia.

ENVIRONMENT: Turning Junk Mail Into Art

Like everyone else, Barbara Hashimoto hated the junk mail coming in through the door. Until she decided one day that it could be transformed into art, and lessons about the environment.

MEXICO: Underwater Museum to Protect Coral Reefs

Four sculptures in human forms, made of concrete, will be submerged in November in the Mexican Caribbean - the first of 400 figures that will comprise the world's largest underwater museum.

BRAZIL: Olympics in Rio – ‘Happiness’ Trumps Wealth and Technology

Brazil has "the happiest and most creative" people in the world, and deserved this opportunity, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in Copenhagen, celebrating Friday's election of Rio de Janeiro as the host of the 2016 Olympic Games.

MEXICO: Black Minority Invisible in Bicentennial Plans

Mexico has big plans for celebrating its 200th anniversary of independence from Spain next year. But Mexicans of African descent are as invisible in those plans as they are in everyday life.

PHILIPPINES: Muslim Unrest ‘A Political Problem in Religious Garb’

Pushing Muslims' long-held aspirations for genuine self-determination in mainly Catholic Philippines is a complicated struggle "because we are not a priority issue" for the central government.

JAPAN: Buddhist Priests Use Pop Culture to Win Back Faithful

Hip hop. Fashion. Zen café. Animation.

LATIN AMERICA: Black Population – Still Largely Invisible

Making the contributions by black people to the cultural heritage of Latin America visible is one big step towards pulling people of African descent out of the poverty and marginalisation in which so many still live, said participants at a regional seminar in the Uruguayan capital.