POLITICS-US: Three Iraqs Worse Than One?

With a strong majority of U.S. citizens favouring withdrawal from Iraq within a year and presidential elections set for 2008, Democrats and moderate Republicans continue to face an uphill struggle to force President George W. Bush to change course.

SCIENCE: Gay Bombs, Randy Hamsters and Other Wondrous Items

Some of the world's most esteemed scientists paraded on stage in silly egg costumes as a researcher of airborne hamsters on Viagra was feted at the annual Ig Nobel science awards Thursday at Harvard University.

RIGHTS-JAPAN: ‘Don’t Erase Wartime Atrocities From Textbooks’

After more than 110,000 Okinawans joined a dramatic protest rally on the weekend, the Japanese government may review its controversial history textbook writing policy, which has seen the deletion of the military's role in wartime atrocities on the island.

POLITICS: Global Public Favours More Immigration Controls

While most people around the world embrace free trade and related economic features of globalisation, they also favour more restrictions on immigration into their countries, according to a major 47-nation survey released here Thursday by the Pew Global Attitudes Project (PGAP).

CUBA: Providing the Tools for an Active, Fruitful Old Age

Becoming a senior citizen in Cuba has ceased to be seen as a tragedy, the end of useful life and a resigned waiting for death. Embracing old age without fear, with its pain and its wisdom, appears to be the purpose of thousands of women and men who attend classes at the University for Older Adults.

BURMA: Fear Over the Country

Nights are no more the same for the 45-year-old Buddhist monk who lives in a monastery in the Myay Ni Gone area, close to the heart of this dilapidated city. Nor is sleep.

ENVIRONMENT-US: A Budding Market for Food Less Travelled

The scent of portobello mushrooms wafts through the air as two of the three co-owners of Roots prep for their morning customers.

ENVIRONMENT-PAKISTAN: Pay-Toilets? When the Walls Are Free?

At a pay-and-use toilet at Karachi’s Civil Hospital, Rustom Ali asserts: "I’m an employee here so why should I pay?" Hari Ram, the 60-year-old caretaker, is too meek to argue and lets Ali in. "Very few people pay," Ram mutters.

POLITICS-US: Christian Right Slams Republicans Over Abortion

Despite its oft-written obituary, the Christian right wing in the United States is alive and functioning.

CUBA: Citizen Action Transforming the Barrio

Two women set out nine years ago to help the barrio of Balcón Arimao, on the outskirts of the Cuban capital, tackle its numerous problems through community participation.

PORTUGAL: Black Actors Coming Into Their Own

Africans and dark-skinned Brazilians and Portuguese, who already have a strong presence in the fields of dance and music, are now appearing ever more frequently in films, television serials and plays in Portugal.

POLITICS-IRAN: Islamist, Socialist Revolutions Don&#39t Mix

An attempt to rope in the son and daughter of the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara to forge a parallel between Iran’s Islamist revolution and the socialist revolution in Latin America through a four-day conference has ended in fiasco.

POPULATION-PHILIPPINES: Manila Women to Fight Ban on Contraceptives

Lourdes Esplana-Osil has seven children, all born within a space of 12 years. Warned by her doctor of complications from repeated pregnancies, she started using injectable contraceptives provided free at a local government health centre.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Poor Worse Off After Selling Kidneys

"The only time I’ve been to Rawalpindi was in 2004 when I was taken by an ‘agent’ (middleman in the human organ trade) to a hospital there to sell my kidney," says Faqir Masih, 23. He never wants to visit the city, again.

BURMA: China Has Much at Stake

Jarring against a dearth of official news about the turmoil in Burma, the ‘Southern Weekend’ - one of China’s more liberal official newspapers - has chosen to run a lengthy feature about an ethnic Chinese entrepreneur striking it rich in the jade business in that neighbouring country.

RUSSIA: U.S. Report on Rights Challenged

Russian authorities and analysts have hit back at the latest U.S. State Department report on religious freedom, non-profitable organisations and democracy. The report 'International Religious Freedom 2007' was released Sep. 14 by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour of the State Department.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Citizenship Test Slammed as Stupid, Racist

Prospective Australian citizens will now be required to pass a citizenship test which will, according to the federal Government, assist in providing aspiring Australians with an understanding of "Australia’s values, traditions, history and national symbols".

Q&A: ‘China Holds the Key to Democracy in Burma’

Ever since he hijacked a Rangoon-bound Thai airliner to Kolkata in 1990, to highlight the brutality of its military rulers, Soe Myint has been the face of the Burmese resistance in India - a country with ambiguous policies towards its eastern neighbour and the plight of its people.

LABOUR-INDIA: Fisherwomen Question Tourism&#39s &#39Magic&#39

Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney described his 2002 Kerala tour in one word – 'magical'. For thousands who throng the state's green villages, picturesque backwaters and beaches, the experience is no less than a 'Magical Mystery Tour’. But local fisherwomen say it means new and harsh realities for them.

Q&A: ‘I Hate Politics and Intellectuals’

Croatian writer and journalist Slavenka Drakulic is preparing to launch the German edition of her latest novel, Frida, in November, in Berlin. In the meantime, she attended last week the 20th meeting of Eurozine (European Meeting of Cultural Journals) in Sibiu, Romania, the European city of culture for 2007.

ARCHITECTURE-MEXICO: A Towering Success for Community Activists

The power of organised civil society has overturned the plans announced by the government of the Mexican capital to build the Bicentennial Tower, which was to be the tallest skyscraper in Latin America.