SRI LANKA: No Lessons Learnt From 'Black July' of 1983

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom in Sri Lanka there are few signs that any positive lessons have been learnt from the gory events that changed this island nation’s history and sent a once booming economy into a downward trajectory.

POPULATION-PHILIPPINES: Catholic Church Damns The Pill

As World Population Day was being marked on Jul. 11, Tess and Andy were attending a family planning seminar as a requirement for their forthcoming wedding. It turned out to be window into one of the major problems besetting the Philippine population programme.

Q&A: 'Guam Matters, Not Guamanian Rights'

In this second of a two-part interview, IPS spoke with Julian Aguon - whose homeland of Guam is soon to receive thousands more U.S. troops - regarding the island’s economic problems, why Guam matters to Washington and the value of solidarity links between activists who are divided by oceans, yet united in a cause.

CAMBODIA: Scribe's Murder, Temple Dispute Muddy Polls

Cambodia has entered the final week of its national election campaign shocked by the murder of a well-known journalist and facing an increasingly tense standoff with Thailand over a disputed 11th century Hindu temple.

RELIGION: UN Invited to Create Interfaith Council

The participants at the World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid have proposed that the United Nations create an interreligious council.

TRADE-AFRICA: Senegal and South Africa Moving Closer?

Senegal’s opposition to United Nations sanctions against Zimbabwe aligns Pres. Abdoulaye Wade’s government with that of South Africa. This should boost the two countries’ bilateral relations, which have seemingly been improving in the wake of a recent bilateral trade treaty.

Q&A: ''Guam Remains Functionally a US Colony''

The tiny island of Guam - officially an unincorporated territory of the United States - is soon to be inundated with thousands more U.S. military personnel as the world’s superpower realigns its forces. In this first of a two-part interview, indigenous Guamanian activist Julian Aguon spoke with IPS on issues surrounding the build-up.

THAILAND/CAMBODIA: Row Over Ancient Temple May Sour ASEAN Spirit

Amornchai Sirisai has been a regular visitor to the Thai-Cambodian border close to where a 10th century Hindu temple sits atop a steep cliff. But it is not tourism that takes the Thai national to the ancient site.

AUSTRALIA: Court Upholds Free Speech at Major Catholic Event

While young Catholics from around the world have converged on Sydney to rejoice in their faith during this year’s World Youth Day, others are celebrating the removal of a controversial regulation which would have made protesting during the event a risky venture.

POLITICS-US: McCain Gets Religion

Over the course of the past few months, Senator John McCain, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, accepted and then rejected the endorsements of the controversial pastors Rod Parsley and John Hagee, after media reports about Parsley's vitriol toward Islam and Hagee's views that the Holocaust was part of God's biblical plan for the Jews to move to Israel.

CHINA: War on Drugs Prompts More Executions

China’s intensified "people’s war on drugs" is undermining efforts to reform the use of the death penalty in the country believed to be the world’s most prolific executioner.

CHINA: Olympics Party Disrupts Life for Beijingers

With less than a month to go before fireworks herald the beginning of China’s Olympics party on Aug. 8, the security overdrive and image concerns of Beijing authorities have resulted in so many restrictions that local residents are beginning to wish that the games were already over.

BALKANS: Serbia Turns to Ancient Rome

Serbia has discovered, and now wants tourists to, that 16 Roman emperors of 3rd and 4th century AD were born in what is now Serbia.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: New Plan to Undermine Japanese Whaling

Australia is hopeful that its proposal for a new multi-national whale research program - in which whales are not killed - announced at the recent International Whaling Commission meeting in Chile will place considerable pressure on Japan’s controversial whaling programme.

VIETNAM: Buddhist Leader Relevant in Death – As in Life

In death, the patriarch of an outlawed Buddhist movement in Vietnam has proved to be as politically relevant and controversial as in life. Thich Huyen Quang died on Jul 5, at the age of 87.

AFRICA: Russia Behind China and Brazil in Building Relations

The Soviet-era connections between Russia and some African states have collapsed into low levels of economic engagement between the former partners, with the arms trade remaining the exception.

POPULATION-PAKISTAN: Illegality Inducing Unsafe Abortions

For thousands of Pakistani women, the World Population Day message of ‘Family planning is a right, let’s make it real’’ must sound hollow when they must resort to unsafe, illegal abortions while a debate on whether termination of pregnancy is Islamic or not rages on.

POPULATION-INDIA: One-Child Ideal Catching On

Ponni, 27, lay quiet on a missionary hospital bed in this small town, groggy from the anaesthetic administered to her for a caesarean delivery a couple of hours earlier.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Locals, Lawyers Prepare for Battle Over Land

In thick forest in the north-east Cambodian province of Ratanakiri, a team of lawyers uses a global positioning satellite handset to mark the location of traditional spirit forests and gravesites belonging to local Jarai villagers.

THEATRE-US: Desegregating Schools, Then the Supreme Court

As Sen. Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democratic presidential nomination at a 75,000-seat football stadium in Denver, Colorado next month, a play on New York's Broadway takes audiences back to another iconic and groundbreaking figure in U.S. civil rights history.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Cracks Show Up in Opposition Ranks

That opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim can draw the crowds in spite of fresh allegations of sodomy levelled against him was proved at last week’s massive anti-fuel hike rally. But cracks are showing up in the hurriedly formed three-party opposition People’s Alliance coalition.