CULTURE-AFGHANISTAN: Young Musicians Revive Classical Heritage

Bombs and rockets may have reduced Afghanistan’s cultural heart to rubble, but it has not completely destroyed a people’s centuries-old love of classical Hindustani music.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Dark Days for Women

Judicial authorities in Iran have sentenced two women activists who participated in a peaceful protest against discriminatory laws in June 2006 to more than 30 months in jail and ten lashes.

CHINA/JAPAN: Nanking the Film May Reopen Old Wounds

That ‘Nanking’, the powerful new United States documentary on the rape of the city of that name, has been approved for domestic screening in China reveals the fact that the ghosts of the gruesome events 70 years ago still haunt Sino-Japanese relations.

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Priest Faces Judgement Day

The Argentine justice system is prosecuting Christian von Wernich, a Catholic priest, for "aberrant, atrocious and massive" crimes. He exemplifies the collaboration of part of the Catholic Church with state terrorism during the military dictatorship that was in power from 1976 to 1983.

ARGENTINA: A Pause for Thought

Academics from every continent will be meeting next week in Argentina for the Second Extraordinary World Congress of Philosophy, where they will ponder the shape of the future in a context of free-market economics and globalisation.

HEALTH: Getting Tough With Second-hand Smoke

The global anti-tobacco movement has just armed itself with tough new language capable of clearing the air at workplaces, restaurants and bars of tobacco smoke.

RIGHTS-CUBA: Dissident Group Sees No Improvement

The temporary retirement of President Fidel Castro on Jul. 31, 2006 has resulted in no change in "the civil, political, economic and certain cultural rights situation," which continues to be "unfavourable," a dissident human rights group said on Thursday.

THEATRE-US: Class Dismissed? Not by These Playwrights

The United States is famous as a country that denies the validity of class. But you'd get a different idea at theatres across New York, where two new plays and a revival look head-on at the way wealth, status and power affect people's lives.

JAPAN: Nuclear Bombing Gaffe May Hit Conservatives

Nationalists and pacifists alike have welcomed the resignation this week of Japan’s high profile defence minister, Fumio Kyuma, in the wake of uproar over his reference to the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as events that "couldn’t be helped".

ALBANIA: But Where Are the Differences

People across the Balkans have much in common, forget the conflicts of the recent or distant past, and the efforts of politicians to convince them how "different" or "distinctive" they are.

IRAQ: Kurds Wrangle Over Islam

Disputes have arisen within Kurdistan over the role Islam should play in a new constitution.

MEDIA-IRAN: New TV Channel to Focus on Iraq, Shia Issues

Iran’s newly launched English language satellite television channel ‘Press TV’ will focus its coverage on difficult issues in the Middle East such as the United States’ occupation of neighbouring Iraq and the Shiite question.

SRI LANKA: Norway in No Hurry to Resume Mediation

While much store is being set by the prospect of Norway returning to its key role as mediator between the nationalist government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and ethnic Tamil rebels, indications are that the Scandinavians are in no hurry.

BRAZIL: New Lives for Victims of Slave Labour

José Alves has held on, for memory’s sake, to what is left of the old bicycle that took him hundreds of kilometres throughout Brazil’s eastern Amazon jungle region as he "hunted for work to improve my life." His need for a job led him to fall victim to slave labour - not once, but several times.

RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Freeing Modern-Day Slaves

A young man with burns to his hands and feet which have become evil-smelling open wounds arrives, assisted by a co-worker. He suffered an electric shock on the hacienda (estate) where he works, when a metal rod he was carrying made contact with a high-tension cable.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Cape Yorkers Pin Hopes on Heritage Listing

With the Cape York peninsula, one of the wildest tropical environments on the planet, coming under pressure from mining, commercial fishing and the tourism industries, conservation groups are pinning hopes on this pristine locale gaining a World Heritage listing and thereby permanent protection.

CULTURE-CHINA: Shanghaied Into Modernity

When one of China’s top leaders in charge of the country’s architectural landscape recently berated Chinese cities for their breathless rush towards modernity, none deserved the reprimand more than Shanghai.

DRUGS-BOLIVIA: More Cocaine, More Political Tension?

An eight percent rise in Bolivian coca cultivation documented by the United Nations, equaling an annual supply of 94 tonnes of cocaine, could cause tensions with Brazil and European Union (EU) countries where the illegal product is marketed, political observers say.

ROMANIA: Gay Rights Far From Being Acknowledged

The third Gay Pride Parade that drew strong opposition earlier this month underlines the fact that gay rights are far from being accepted in this country.

CHINA: Feudal Custom of Getting ‘Ghost Wives’ Far from Dead

Ghost stories might have been recently exorcised from bookshelves by Chinese censors for the horror they inflict on the public, but equally grisly tales of ‘ghost wives’ have been unfolding in real life.

IRAN: Temporary Marriages Just a Way to Degrade Women – Critics

A key Iranian minister calls ‘temporary marriages’ a pragmatic way to deal with young people’s sexual needs and to prevent prostitution, but a wide range of critics lambasts them as little more than ways to give religious sanction to practices that degrade women.