PAKISTAN: Military Ruler ‘Floored’ by Burqa Brigade

For a tough military ruler, who in recent weeks removed the chief justice from office and allowed police raids on leading newspapers, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appears curiously paralysed by roving bands of the ‘burqa brigade' - veiled female religious scholars armed with sticks and ready to enforce Shariah (Islamic law).

CULTURE-CHINA: Tomb Traders Cash in on Costly Funeral Customs

The fact that in China the dead are venerated more than the living has opened up opportunities for businessmen attempting to cash in on the country's elaborate and costly funeral traditions that are seeing a revival.

RELIGION-MEXICO: Authorities Go Up In Flames

Mexican President Felipe Calderón and other authorities will be burned in effigy on Saturday as part of the traditional custom of "burning Judas", who is viewed by Christians as the arch-traitor.

PAKISTAN: ‘Missing Teenagers Lured by Islamist Militants’

"I am in search of my son, who went missing three months ago from the neighbourhood. We are told that he is in Afghanistan fighting alongside the Taliban," said Gul Afzal, a resident of Ghareebabad hamlet in Mardan, North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).

WORLD HEALTH DAY-PAKISTAN: Anti-Polio Drive Hits Resistance

''After climbing up several flights of stairs, sometimes seven or even more, our teams may be told brusquely, that the child is asleep and they should come later," says Seemi Fatema, one many health workers in this city charged with administering polio vaccine drops to under-five children.

CULTURE-SINGAPORE: Nanny State Ready to Let Hair Down

Music festivals. International art shows. Ballet under the stars. Literary readings. Fashion galas. Film fiestas. No, we are not talking about New York, London or Paris, but the city state of Singapore - known better for its ban on chewing gum and for caning offenders than its cultural offerings.

ARGENTINA: Teachers in the Line of Fire

A violent police crackdown on a teachers' protest in the southwestern Argentine province of Neuquén left one teacher in coma and prompted unions to call a nationwide teachers' strike for Monday Mar. 9.

CUBA: Dogs Suffer the Mean Streets

More than 20,000 stray dogs can be found on the streets of Cuban cities, their lives threatened by traffic and by violence - human and canine.

AFGHANISTAN: Journalists Appeal for Release of Kidnapped Colleague

Afghan and Italian press associations appealed Wednesday for the Islamic Taliban movement to release Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi, who was kidnapped on Mar. 5.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Civil War – Not Quite Cricket Says Amnesty

The delivery is faultless but the government sees it as a 'googly'. Amnesty International (AI), the human rights watchdog, has timed the cricket World Cup series in the West Indies to get thousands of balls, inscribed with the message ‘'Play by the rules,'' sent up to the prosecutors of this country's brutal civil war.

MEXICO: Beach-Going in the Land-Locked Capital

Crowds of people flocked to the Mexican capital's first artificial beach Tuesday - a stretch of bright white sand studded with palm trees and beach chairs, and with plenty of hot sunshine. At an elevation of 2,250 metres above sea level and more than 400 kilometres from the nearest coast, it is surrounded by a cement jungle and chronic smog.

RELIGION-SPAIN: Archbishop Deals Blow to ‘Priests of the Poor’

"I wouldn't be able to stand it if they close the parish. They have given me everything," said Maite Molina, 48, referring to a decision by the archbishop of the Spanish capital to punish the priests in a parish that reaches out to the poor, immigrants, drug addicts and other marginalised sectors.

AFGHANISTAN: Media, Civil Society Stake Bold Claim as Leaders

Scan the pages of major newspapers around the world and the only news coming out of Afghanistan is about bomb blasts and the escalating conflict between the Taliban and NATO forces in the country's south.

PAKISTAN: Security Concerns Force Afghan Refugees to Stay

"Lack of security in Afghanistan is the main obstacle standing in the way of our going back," said an Afghan vegetable-seller, straddling a muddy narrow lane in Kacha Garhi, the oldest refugee camp in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), with a push-cart.

ARTS-BRAZIL: Graffiti Comes In Off the Street

Chico realised that his drawings on the walls of Rio de Janeiro were an art form when, at the age of 18, he read an article about the pioneers of graffiti in this Brazilian city.

POLITICS-TURKEY: Rediscovering Eastern Roots

With full European Union (EU) membership on hold, the Middle East the focus of global attention, and both China and India on the rise, Turkey has begun to turn to the East.

RIGHTS-INDIA: Court Rules Against Affirmative Action for Low Castes

India's Supreme Court has thrown a spanner in the government's plan to promote affirmative action by reserving 27 percent of admissions for them in central (federal) institutions of higher learning. On Thursday, a two-judge bunch ruled against such reservations mandated by an act of parliament in 2006.

TRADE-KENYA: East Africans May Be Stripped of the Kikoi

Kenyan activists are fighting to retain cultural designs that have been developed in East Africa but are being patented by companies in rich countries. After losing the kiondo basket trademark to Japan, the popular kikoi fabric design is currently at risk of being patented by a British company.

PORTUGAL: Salazar ‘Greatest Portuguese Ever’, TV Viewers Say

News media and academic circles in Portugal are vying with each other to explain why the public chose former dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (1932-1968) in a poll on state television channel RTP as "The Greatest Portuguese Who Ever Lived."

TRADE-KENYA: Shopping With a Clean Conscience

It is early morning and the Undugu Fair Trade Shop, tucked away in a suburban shopping centre in Nairobi, is bustling. Apart from the few locals, there are the usual tourists, recognizable from their safari outfits: khaki shirts and trousers and the obligatory hat worn even when indoors.

PHILIPPINES: Rape Case Won’t Dent US Military Presence

While public anger has dogged the Subic Bay rape case, which resulted in the conviction of a United States marine in December, it will not affect U.S. military presence in the Philippines or Washington's overall policy in the Asia Pacific region.