RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Tough Terror Laws Part of Routine Policing?

Civil libertarians are concerned that significant powers wielded by authorities in order to conduct investigations into terrorism-related activities are being normalised and made available for less serious crimes.

TRADE-TANZANIA: Crafts Charity Disproves Myths About Disability

After Joel Haule developed a crippling childhood disease that left him wheelchair-bound, his parents began calling him ‘‘Matatizo’’, the Kiswahili word for ‘‘problems’’.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Hopes Pinned on Reinstated Justices

As he resumes office as Chief Justice of Pakistan on Tuesday, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry will doubtless mull over the years since Mar. 9, 2007 when he was first unceremoniously sacked by then president Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

MEDIA: Fashion Advice and Info for HIV-Positive Women

The colourful new magazine of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) in Latin America and the Caribbean has a modern look and provides not only information but articles on fashion and entertainment. It is also the perfect size to carry in a purse.

FILM-US: Latino Fest in the Fray of Pop Culture’s Lucha Libre

The San Diego Latino Film Festival is perhaps the biggest little film festival most people outside of Southern California have never heard of.

NICARAGUA: Caribbean Women Face Double Discrimination

The first criminal prosecution for racial discrimination in Nicaragua, in response to a complaint brought by a woman lawmaker in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), has focused attention on the segregationist treatment of indigenous and Afro-Caribbean women in the Caribbean coastal regions.

Q&A: ‘‘The Market Is Not God And We Are Not At Its Mercy’’

Churches from South Africa and Germany are critically interrogating neoliberal globalisation in a process that they want to take up to United Nations level and also to their congregations ‘‘to build responsibility among people for what is happening in their world’’.

RIGHTS-BURMA: Junta Lets UN Continue Helping Muslim Rohingyas

For now, the United Nations’ refugee agency has been given breathing room to operate in a western corner of military-ruled Burma, where humanitarian programmes offer some comfort to the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.

RELIGION-PAKISTAN: Bombing Closes Shrine Off For Women

Few women are visiting the mausoleum of the famous 17th century mystic poet Abdul Rehman Baba since suspected Pakistani Taliban bombed it.

PHILIPPINES/US: Women’s Groups Back Recanting Rape Victim

Nicole, the Filipina who accused a United States serviceman of raping her in 2005, has recanted her testimony, but women’s groups supporting her in the case do not see this development as a defeat.

RIGHTS-MOROCCO: Renewed Efforts to End Violence Against Women

The campaign against violence towards women has been the focus of media attention in Morocco recently, in order to press for an end to gross abuses committed by men against women and make victims aware of the need to break the silence which allows it to continue.

NEW ZEALAND: Asian Muslims Tell Their Own Stories

A new book and accompanying exhibit provide rare insight into the lives of Asian Muslims, who have become an intrinsic part of New Zealand's diverse community since the first Muslim Chinese gold miners landed on its distant shores 130 years ago.

POLITICS: Five Days That Changed Pakistan

A late night meeting between Pakistan's army chief, President and Prime Minister led to the dramatic announcement in the wee hours of Monday morning that Iftikhar Mohammed Choudhry would be restored as Chief Justice.

CULTURE: Ethiopian Film Takes Top Honours at FESPACO

Filmmaker Haile Gerima’s Ethiopian movie "Teza" has won the Golden Stallion of Yennenga at the 21st Panafrican Festival of Cinema and Television (Fespaco) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Q&A: Play for Peace

Sport could be one way of alleviating the thousands of children drawn into armed conflicts around the world. Certainly Prince Feisal Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, also president of the Jordanian Olympic Committee, believes this, and has been using sports to heal traumatised children all his life.

MIDEAST: Singing Across the Divide

From the flattened buildings in Gaza, through angry demonstrations outside a Swedish tennis stadium, to the web pages of human rights reports, battles continue to rage over Israel's policies and the legacy of its Gaza war.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Long March – A Long View

Barely a year after being elected, the Pakistan government faces a political storm involving a street agitation spearheaded by lawyers and opposition political parties allied with religious parties.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Kerala Has Elephantine Problems

Among attractions for visitors to southern Kerala state is the way elephants are seen closely integrated into the religious lives of the people.

KENYA: Words that Reshape a Country’s Identity

The goal is ambitious: Kenya’s first literary journal, Kwani?, wants to bring new thinking to the country - and ultimately the continent - and reshape African identities. The journal aims to provoke, create, entertain and develop a literary community that isn’t afraid to question the status quo.

PERU: Drama Exposes Rape as Weapon of War

The film La Teta Asustada/The Milk of Sorrow, the big winner at the Berlin Film Festival, drives home the brutal effects of Peru’s armed conflict on thousands of women who were raped and have lived with the pain and a lingering sense of shame and fear ever since.

Q&A: Women Must Challenge the "Gatekeepers of Culture"

"In order to be a good Muslim, a good Hindu, a good Pakistani, a good woman, you need to act in certain ways," says Aisha Shaheed. "And all these parameters are defined by [male] self-proclaimed cultural leaders."