CANADA: ‘Prince of Pot’, Hockey and a U.S. Extradition Hearing

Canadian Marc Emery, an evangelical advocate of legalising marijuana, is to face a high-profile hearing next month on whether he should be extradited to the United States to face charges stemming from his lucrative, Internet-based marijuana seed business.

JAPAN/CHINA: Economically Close, Politically Wide Apart

The smiling photographs of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe by his side, suggest serious rapprochement during last week's landmark visit to this country. But the common expression used to define the complex relationship between Asia's two key players remains the same - ‘economically close, politically wide apart'.

MALAYSIA: Indigenous Groups Resist Biodiversity Park

In the thick rainforest outside this town, about 150 km north of the national capital, the guileless Semai aborigines, famous to anthropologists for their for non-aggressiveness, are falling sick from stress brought about by sudden land development that threatens to uproot them.

MEDIA-US: Public’s Grasp of Current Issues Unchanged Despite Internet, Cable TV

Despite the emergence of 24-hour cable television news and fast-growing use of internet news sources, the U.S. public's knowledge of national and international personalities and issues is little changed from nearly 20 years ago, according to a new survey released by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.

MIDDLE EAST: GCC Countries Complicate US’ Iran Plans

With members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) urging dialogue rather than war with Iran over its nuclear programme and reluctant to allow their territories to be used in any attack, Washington's pressure tactics against Tehran appear to be faltering.

BANGLADESH: Long Break From Party Politics

While the head of the military-backed interim government in Bangladesh has announced that rescheduled polls may be held only by the end of next year, he has offered no timetable for a return to party politics and democracy in this country that is home to world's third largest Muslim population.

NIGERIA: What Have Eight Years of Democracy Done for Women Politicians?

"Men are the decision makers; women should be cooking in the kitchen while men play politics." This is the type of comment that Dorothy Ukel Nyone's male counterparts repeatedly made when she announced her intention to contest a seat in Nigeria's state elections, which got underway Saturday.

MEDIA-SOUTH ASIA: Joint-TV Programmes May Yet Build Regional Trust

A unique, private media initiative involving joint television programmes may do what political leaders in South Asia have failed to do so far - bring together the people of this fractious region.

ANGOLA-MOZAMBIQUE: Women Face Unequal Inequality

The rights of women enshrined in the constitutions of Angola and Mozambique are identical. But in practice, there are enormous differences.

FILM-CUBA: Young New Directors Provide a Fresh Look

Run-down neighbourhoods, cynical, sceptical young people, locals surviving in buildings crumbling around them, people forging new paths in remote mountain villages: these are all fragments of reality that live and breathe in documentaries by a new generation of Cuban filmmakers.

POLITICS-INDIA: Hindu Party Defies Secular Election Laws

The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which led India's coalition government between 1998 and 2004, has mounted an aggressive challenge to the country's legal and electoral system.

POPULATION-JAPAN: Obstetric Care Hits Crisis Levels

Mayu Sasaki, 32, is expecting her second baby in May, but rather than making happy preparations the former economics researcher is filled with anxiety.

CHINA/JAPAN: Ghosts of the Past Won’t Rest

Former war enemies China and Japan have embarked on forward looking diplomacy to sustain the recent thaw in their frosty bilateral ties. But differing interpretations of history and harsh perceptions of each other are holding the two neighbours back from diplomatic rapprochement.

HAITI: A Literary Icon for “Les Damnes de la Terre”

He was born to an affluent family in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in 1907, and spent much of the first 20 years of his life at schools in Belgium and Switzerland.

RELIGION-PHILIPPINES: Crucifixions Gory but Bring in Tourist Dollars

The throngs that gather every year on Good Friday on a hill overlooking the paddy fields of San Petro Cutud, three km from this city, to witness gory reenactments of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ are creating unease within the Catholic church here.

RELIGION-COLOMBIA: Changing World, Changing Faiths

The Catholic Church is losing members every day in Colombia, despite its deep-rooted religious tradition in this country, while evangelical congregations are filling their churches to overflowing.

RIGHTS-TOBAGO: In Fear of… Elton John?

If you Google the name "Elton John", you will find a host of web sites providing you with details about the prolific songwriter and flamboyant performer, who had at least 30 hits on the Top 40 charts between 1970 and 1982.

JAPAN: Avoiding Tough Topics as Wen Comes Calling

Marking the first visit to Japan by a Chinese premier in almost seven years, Wen Jiabao will land in Tokyo Wednesday on a visit that is expected to further thaw frosty relations between the neighbours - although analysts expect few concrete results from the summit.

IRAN: In Catch-22 Over Release of British Mariners

A week after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the release of 15 British mariners, detained on charges of trespassing into Iranian waters, it is still unclear if he got any mileage out of an incident that may well have sparked off a new war in the Middle East.

BALKANS: Send Me A Dalekoumnozitelj, I Am Croat

Forget the past, they say, because the language it left in the Balkans is too mixed up with Serbs and Bosniaks. Croat linguists are now producing a language of their own. If you want to send them a fax about this, you'd have to call it a dalekoumnozitelj.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Executes Freed Italian Scribe’s Colleague

A young Afghan journalist, who was abducted along with the freed Italian journalist Danielle Mastrogiacomo in southern Afghanistan by Taliban militants, was killed 48 hours ahead of the expiry of a deadline for negotiations issued to the government.