LABOUR-JAPAN: Xenophobia May Hamper Economic Growth

Junko Nakayama, 56, refuses to believe that the number of foreigners arrested for crimes is decreasing as per statistics released by the National Policy Agency.

TURKEY: The Military Weighs In

Turkey's presidential election, once considered a simple matter by a parliament under single- party domination, has become a major case before the Constitutional Court - complicated by a sudden military involvement.

IRAN: Dress Code Row – Another Ahmadinejad Failure

This year's uncharacteristically harsh crackdown on 'bad hijab' (improper dressing), that has pitted the moral police against the public, is being seen as one more election promise that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been unable to keep.

VENEZUELA: Bull Fights – Cultural Tradition or National Disgrace?

The roar of "Olé!" greeting a sweep of the cape and the rapturous applause when the bull meets its death at the matador's sword may soon become a thing of the past in Venezuela if the movement supporting a new animal protection law is successful.

RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: “Many Men Fear Losing Their Power”

One in four women in an abusive relationship, a woman killed approximately every week by her close male partner: these figures, from People Opposing Women Abuse, a Johannesburg-based non-profit, indicate the extent of the problem posed by gender-related violence in South Africa.

POLITICS-U.S.: Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative Listing but Not Sunk

In early April, officials in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, agreed to bar any public funding of religious activities as part of a settlement in a lawsuit challenging a local "faith-based" ministry for prisoners.

LEBANON: Political Loyalties Being Rebuilt

People in this southern Lebanese village are rebuilding their destroyed houses with renewed vigour. And, with renewed loyalties to a combination of Hezbollah, Qatar and Iran.

RIGHTS: U.S. Gov’t Discriminates Against Muslim Immigrants – Study

U.S. immigration practices towards thousands of Muslim immigrants over the past six years received a searing indictment in a study released Tuesday, accusing the U.S. government of turning immigration institutions into security stations that penalise individuals because of their religion and national origin.

HEALTH-MEXICO: Abortion No Longer a Crime in Capital

The Mexico City legislature voted Tuesday to legalise abortion, after several weeks of heated debate in which conservative groups and the Catholic Church traded insults with pro-choice activists and threatened them with excommunication.

POLITICS-MALI: A Presidential Election That Breaks With Tradition

When Malians queue to cast ballots in presidential elections Sunday, they will be participating in a poll with a difference: for the first time ever, a woman will be amongst the candidates voters have to choose between.

POLITICS: Suspicion of U.S. Found Pervasive in Islamic World

Six and a half years after U.S. President George W. Bush launched his "global war on terror", suspicion of U.S. motives remains pervasive throughout the Islamic world, according to a new and highly detailed survey of four countries released here Tuesday.

JAPAN: Gender Biased Divorce Law Under Review

The birth of her baby four years ago was supposed to be a happy occasion for Masae Ito, 41. But she and her second husband were in for a nasty surprise at the registry office.

MIGRATION-CHILE: Celebrating Multiculturalism

As a tangible way of appreciating diversity, tolerance and non-discrimination, and in order to launch a debate about migration policy in Chile, university students are organising the First Multicultural Festival to be held in the capital on the weekend of May 26-27.

POLITICS-INDIA: Dalit Woman Favoured to Win Polls in Key State

When the results of the ongoing elections in northern Uttar Pradesh state are out on May 11 chances are high that a ‘hung' assembly would emerge, reflective of the highly fragmented polity in India's most populous province.

THEATRE-U.S.: Iraq, Afghanistan War Vets Find Relief in the Footlights

The house lights go down and the stage lights come up on "The Wolf", the first production of VetStage, a non-profit theatre company run by veterans of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It opens with a funeral: a Roman Catholic priest preparing to deliver a eulogy for a U.S. soldier killed by a road-side bomb.

EARTH DAY: Happiness Is a Smaller Eco-Footprint

Today's children will live in a new world of climate change and greatly diminished natural resources, which may give way to a nightmarish reality, or it could give birth to a happier and lighter way of living on the Earth, say environmentalists.

SUDAN: China Takes Credit for Sending Int’l Troops to Darfur

China is taking credit for its role in persuading the Sudanese government to accept an international peacekeeping force to stop the killings in Darfur and is determined to prevent further sanctions on a country in which it has massive investments.

POLITICS-NIGERIA: Watershed Elections – For Men, That Is

Declarations of no confidence in the electoral commission, threats of an opposition boycott, a key candidate clawing his way back onto the ballot at the last minute...There has been no shortage of political theatre concerning Saturday's milestone elections in Nigeria, or debate on whether the country can successfully hand over power from one civilian government to another for the first time since independence in 1960.

Q&A: ‘Taliban Back Due to Karzai’s Poor Strategic Vision’

Former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah warns that the government of President Hamid Karzai suffers from "shortcomings in strategic vision" that are contributing to a deteriorating security situation in an ethnically diverse country.

MEDIA-US: Public Broadcaster Pulls TV Documentary on Islamism

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has dropped a documentary film purporting to show the struggles of U.S. "moderate" Muslims against Islamic extremists from a television series airing this week on more than 300 U.S. public television stations.

EDUCATION-IRAN: Ahmadinejad Flunks on Teachers&#39 Strike

An attempt to suppress a prolonged teachers' agitation against low wages, through intimidation and mass arrests, may result in the impeachment of education minister Mahmoud Farshidi, a key member of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cabinet.