AUSTRALIA: Catholic Church to Give ‘Impartial’ Abortion Advice

A government plan to award 34 million US dollars to ‘Centacare', the health and welfare arm of the Catholic Church, for abortion counselling has triggered stormy debates over impartiality and the growing influence of religion on Australian policy.

MEDIA-IRAN: Self-Imposed Sanctions

Iran's nuclear programme, an undeniably serious issue for Iranians and the rest of the world, has overshadowed the country's deplorable human rights situation, including severe censorship of books and publications.

DEVELOPMENT-US: Vietnamese Enclave Thrives After Katrina

As Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005, Mo Thi Nguyen, 71, fled New Orleans with family members to Dallas, Texas, where she stayed for three months.

POLITICS-US: How Neocon Shiite Strategy Led to Sectarian War

The supreme irony of President George W. Bush's campaign to blame Iran for the sectarian civil war in Iraq, as well as attacks on U.S. forces, is that the Shiite militias who started to drive the Sunnis out of the Baghdad area in 2004 and thus precipitated the present sectarian crisis did so with the support of both Iran and the neoconservative U.S. war planners.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Teenager’s Rape – Test for New Women’s Law

Proceedings underway against 11 men accused of gang-raping a 16-year-old girl, to extract customary revenge for an elopement, will test the soundness of Pakistan's new legislation passed in December to protect women from crimes committed in the name of defending honour.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Europe’s Endangered Ski Resorts

Ski lovers in Europe are joining the list of those hurt by global climate change. This year the northern hemisphere winter is seeing moderate temperatures and little snowfall - and is looking more like springtime.

POLITICS: Iran Poses Multiple Problems for Arab Nations

As Iran vies with the United States for dominance in the Middle East, the smaller Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are left with several anxieties - the consequences of a U.S./Israeli military attack on Iran; the rising stock of a Shiite country that has long posed a religio-ideological threat; and sectarian strife in Sunni-ruled countries with significant Shiite communities.

SRI LANKA: Donor Threats Unlikely to Stop War Machine

Will the Sri Lankan government forego recent military gains in Tamil rebel-held areas of the island and heed the advice of donors to resume dialogue with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)?

SOUTH AFRICA: Fallen Anti-Apartheid Icon Leaves Behind Inequality

Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Adelaide Tambo's struggle for equality in South Africa has paid off in areas of political participation, but the economy still remains in the hands of the country's white minority, say researchers and campaigners.

NEPAL: Revolution Within a Revolution

A 12-day uprising by Nepal's 'madheshi' (plains) people has forced the revolutionary government to promise it will change the state structure to more fairly distribute power to excluded groups.

DEATH PENALTY-INDIA: A Hangman Speaks

In a tiny hovel on a narrow south Kolkata alley, 87-year-old Nata Mullick recalls with pride and placidity his chilling career as a hangman and his last job which catapulted him to international fame two years ago.

IRAQ: Official Lies over Najaf Battle Exposed

Iraqi government lies over the killing of hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.

CHINA: Image Makeover Timed for 2008 Olympics

With the symbolically important Beijing Olympics and other sensitive dates looming large on China's political calendar, the propaganda czars have begun a new moral campaign that focuses on creating a positive public image.

JAPAN/US: ‘Respect Women Before Setting Up Military Bases’

Japan's plans to boost its defence capability with the support of the United States is being opposed by women's rights activists who say that U.S. military bases in this country are a danger to women who live in their vicinities.

SOUTH AFRICA: High-Profile Murder Sparks Debate on Violent Crime

The murder of a world-renowned historian has jolted South Africa into confronting the reality of escalating violent crime, which is destroying the country's social fabric and hurting its international image.

BOOKS-ARGENTINA: Women Prisoners Tell Their Stories

The daily experiences, codes of language and behaviour and rituals of women in Ezeiza prison, on the outskirts of the Argentine capital, form the rugged terrain that journalist and writer Marta Dillon explores in her latest book.

MEXICO: Vatican Incomprehension Stymies Pastoral Plan in Chiapas

Felipe Arizmendi, the Catholic bishop of the southern Mexican diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, birthplace of the indigenous Zapatista guerrillas, claims that the Vatican, which has imposed restrictions on him, does not understand his pastoral plans or the particular characteristics of his mainly indigenous flock.

CARIBBEAN: Special Cricket Visa Irks Tourism Industry

It's billed as the third biggest sporting event in the world after the football World Cup and the Olympics.

BOOKS-US: Is “Just War” an Oxymoron?

The author of a best-selling "biography" of cod and a world history of salt has taken on the weighty theme of nonviolence movements in his latest book - why some thrive and others fail, and why the concept is so "profoundly dangerous" to the powers that be.

SOUTH PACIFIC: Regional Forum’s Report Crucial for Fiji’s Future

A fact-finding report by the Pacific Forum Eminent Persons' Group (EPG) on Fiji will be critical for the coup-prone South Pacific island country in terms of restoration of international ties and resumption of much-needed aid following December's military takeover, say observers.

POLITICS: Forgiving the Unforgivable

In a forceful move to snub Iran for its continued denial of the Holocaust, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution Friday condemning those who question whether the killing of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler actually happened.