POLITICS-US: Iranian-Americans Seek Least-Hawkish Candidate

Jaded toward their government back home and cynical of the current U.S. administration and the Republicans they historically supported, a new generation of Iranian-Americans appears to be looking to Barack Obama to bring about change, especially with regards to U.S. foreign policy toward Iran.

THEATRE-BRAZIL: Bringing Dreams to Life in the Favela

In La Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Romeo and Juliet’s love story is impossible because they live on hills controlled by rival gangs of drug traffickers.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Ailing Gitmo Prisoner May Die Says His Lawyer

Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani national incarcerated in the United States military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba since September 2004, suffers from a serious heart condition and may not live unless provided special care, says his lawyer.

MEDIA-ARGENTINA: Transvestites Find a Voice

With the support of one of Argentina’s leading public universities, a group of transvestites have launched a magazine aimed at reaffirming their identity and giving them a voice, as they tend to be ignored or given stereotypical coverage by the mainstream press.

RIGHTS-BURMA: &#39How Many Monks Must Die Before The UN Moves?&#39

For one Buddhist monk from Burma, the brutal crackdown of peaceful street protests in the country last September was anything but a victory for the military regime.

Q&A: ‘It Would Take Several Lifetimes to Save Havana’

Eusebio Leal has been involved in the restoration of the historic centre of the Cuban capital since 1967, when he began renovating the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, now the City Museum. And while Old Havana is still his priority, he is concerned about the rest of the city, too.

HEALTH-ARGENTINA: Fighting Mental Illness with Companionship

An innovative mental health plan developed in a town in the Argentine province of La Pampa has reduced to a minimum relapses among patients discharged from hospital, while at the same time providing new and valued employment for jobless people living on state subsidies.

TURKEY: Headscarves Decide National Identity

Turkey's Islamic-rooted governing party is moving ahead with hotly contested constitutional amendments that would lift the ban on headscarves at universities. Opponents see it as a danger-laden step undermining the currently rigid secular regime by introducing Islamic principles that may extend far beyond higher learning.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Rising Hindu Activism May Upset Poll Calculations

A new political force - right wing Hindu activism - has emerged in multi-ethnic Malaysia adding, in an election year, volatility to the country's already religiously charged politics dominated by the majority Malay Muslims.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Prosecuting Poachers Impossible – Wardens

Inquiries into the decimation of 22 tigers by poachers in this famed tiger reserve, during 2002-2005, have revealed a serious problem - the near impossibility of booking poachers in India.

RELIGION: Founder of Legionaries Dies without Ever Going to Trial

Marcial Maciel, the founder of the influential conservative Catholic order Legionaries of Christ, "took with him to the grave secrets and guilt for which he never asked forgiveness," said activist Joaquín Aguilar, referring to the numerous accusations of pedophilia faced by the Mexican priest, who died in the United States.

BOLIVIA: Dying, to Help Others Live

Italian aid worker Morris Bertozzi drowned in Bolivia trying to help a local woman cross a flooded river, just as he had worked for the last 11 years helping street children in the grip of alcohol, drugs and crime cross the bridge to a new life.

Q&A: ‘Half Our Job Is Done If We Have The Imams On Our Side’

At 31, Dr Donya Aziz, was the youngest legislator to join the previous Pakistan Muslim League (Q) government. Busy running for the February elections, Aziz wants to get back into the assembly and resume the work she had to leave off when President Pervez Musharraf clamped emergency rule on Nov. 3, 2007 and dissolved the house.

BRAZIL: Ban on Alcohol Sales in Roadside Businesses

As of Friday, the first day of Carnival, a government ban will go into effect on the sale of alcohol at all restaurants and service stations located along highways or freeways in Brazil, as part of a programme aimed at bringing down the high number of fatal traffic accidents.

PAKISTAN: Sunni-Shia Strife Triggers Exodus Along Afghan Border

Violent sectarian strife in the border Kurram tribal area, already riven with conflict between pro-Taliban and Pakistan government forces, has led to over 500 deaths, and an exodus of civilians to the neighbouring North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).

CHILE: Anti-Discrimination Bill Undermined by the Right

The Chilean Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (MOVILH), together with members of Congress belonging to the centre-left governing coalition parties, have complained that conservative groups are attempting to water down an anti-discrimination bill.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Apology, No Compensation For Lost Generations

While aboriginal groups have welcomed the Australian government’s pledge to apologise to the 'stolen generations', they argue that the gesture should be backed up with compensation.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Brazilian Youth Raise Their Voices

Brazil, the cradle of the World Social Forum (WSF), is hosting events in 19 cities Saturday for the Global Day of Action. The main participants will be young people, as they have always been at every meeting of the Forum.

HEALTH-CHILE: Government Finances Mapuche Medical Service

A conventional hospital and a Mapuche medical centre, run by traditional healers who examine urine and prescribe infusions, coexist at the Intercultural Health Complex in the southern Chilean region of Araucanía.

POLITICS-NEPAL: Plains People&#39s Demands Cast Shadow on Polls

While Apr. 10 has been set as the day on which Nepalis will elect a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution, violent protests by plains people demanding regional autonomy threaten the thrice-postponed polls.

POLITICS-US: Religious Leaders Assail Bush Agenda

Describing George W. Bush as "an explicitly evangelical president" with a "sadly truncated" moral vision, a group of religious leaders is calling on the U.S. president to use his State of the Union message to Congress Monday evening to salvage his legacy by "changing course on the most pressing moral issues of our time".