POLITICS-US: Right and Left Ask, Who Would Jesus Deport?

Unlike last year's Evangelical Climate Initiative, which drew headlines, stunned some longtime "traditional values" conservative evangelicals, and was an attempt to build bridges to combat global warming, the newly formed "Families First on Immigration" appears to have elicited little support for its grand entrance into the immigration debate.

POLITICS-US: Mideast Strategy Increasingly Targets Iran

Six months after last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iran has become the George W. Bush administration's "Public Enemy Number One", against which its Middle East strategy is increasingly focused, according to one of the U.S.'s leading experts on the Gulf.

SAUDI ARABIA: Forgiveness Saves Lives from the Sword

The blazing headline read like this: 'Royal intercession saves two lives from the sword'. Literally, the governor of Mecca Province, Prince Makkah Abdelmageed bin Abdelaziz, who heads a committee for securing "forgiveness" for convicted murderers did help spare two from death by the sword.

CHINA: Regaining the Innovative Initiative

Celebrated as the inventor of development milestones such as the compass and printing, China is aspiring to become a global player in science and technology in the 21st century, casting off decades of neglect of academia and political persecution of intellectuals.

AUSTRALIA: Mothers Assertive in Child Custody Battles

It could have been the script for a Hollywood thriller. After a Lebanese-Australian spirits away his two daughters to Beirut, his estranged Canadian wife gives chase and retrieves them - with the help of mercenaries.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Long Fight for Justice for Homosexuals

Even with tens of thousands of activists at the World Social Forum (WSF) denouncing injustices of all kinds, the issue of discrimination against homosexuals is making its voice heard amidst the din.

BALKANS: Sentences Bring the Spotlight on Islamists

The sentencing of three young Muslims to a total of 40 years in prison has raised new concern over the spread of militant Islam in the Balkans.

EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood In the Dock Again

For the first time, President Hosni Mubarak has declared publicly that the banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood group represented a "danger to Egypt's security". The President's statements came amid an ongoing government crackdown on the group, triggered by the appearance last month of what the official press has called an Islamist "militia".

CULTURE- CHINA: Gory Blockbuster, Cliched Cinema

Show-stopping scenes of regal power and wirework martial arts in Chinese period dramas might be all the rage in the West but the success stories of these best-selling films have provoked an uneasy debate at home about what Chinese blockbusters should be all about.

RUSSIA: Religious Groups Fight to Keep Accounts Secret

Leaders of religious groups are contesting government requirements for declaration of their funds such as those collected during church services.

SOUTH PACIFIC: Lax Laws Encouraging Paedophiles

A prominent high court judge says weaknesses in legislation and child protection agencies are partly responsible for the ‘alarming degree' of child sexual abuse and exploitation in five Pacific island countries, now highlighted in a United Nations report.

POLITICS-JAPAN: Iraq War Gets Military More Teeth

Ignoring public unease, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has endorsed United States President George W. Bush's controversial new plan to increase the number of troops in war-torn Iraq.

ENVIRONMENT: Evangelicals, Scientists Team Up on Warming

One year after the launch by nearly 100 evangelical Christian leaders of a major initiative on global warming, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has announced a joint effort with scientific groups to urge stronger efforts by the government to protect the global environment.

THAILAND: Junta Revives King’s ‘Sufficiency Economy’ Model

A development theory being advanced by Thailand's military-appointed government may provoke questions about academic freedom and the right to free expression in a country that is under the grip of harsh lese majesty laws.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Obstetric Fistula – Grim Reminder of Unmet MDGs

''I wouldn't have thrown her out but would certainly have remarried,'' says Mohammad Qasim easily, sitting in a verandah at the Koohi Goth Maternity Centre in the suburbs of this southern port city.

THEATRE-CHILE: Enter Salvation, Stage Right

Among the profusion of plays on offer in the Chilean capital in the new year is a festival of moving dramas in which the actors are convicts and slum-dwellers, who are trying to escape marginalisation by going on the stage.

SOUTH ASIA: Indo-Pakistan Ties Set to Improve – Slowly

India and Pakistan have resumed their bilateral dialogue in earnest and will hold the next (fourth) round of talks in two months following a meeting of their bilateral ‘joint-commission' in February. However, progress in improving mutual relations is likely to be slow, especially on the thorny issue of Kashmir.

MEXICO: Lest We Forget – Tlatelolco 1968

At 6:10 p.m. on Oct. 2, 1968, red and green flares signalled troops and police in civilian clothes that it was time to fire on the students gathered in Tlatelolco square in the Mexican capital. This massacre changed the country's history.

POLITICS-IRAN: Refusing to Be Provoked by the US

Iran has masterfully refused to be provoked by the United States military action of arresting six of its diplomatic staff during a raid on an Iranian liaison office in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, last week.

/CORRECTION*/POLITICS: Israel Looking for an Extreme Makeover

It hasn't been the easiest year for Israel.

FILM: Cuba’s Almodovar Girl

She swept the floor, emptied the ashtrays and watched the plates of food served by the waiters with hungry eyes. Afterwards, when the lights were dimmed and the music came on, she appeared on stage and sang "I want to be an Almodóvar girl."