FILM-ARGENTINA: Local Characters Get All the Parts

"I’d like to be offered the role of a madwoman some day, or of a vicious person, just out of curiosity, because I’m really not like that at all," says Carmen Drive, a 56-year-old Argentine homemaker who has already acted in 18 movies without ever having set foot outside her home town, population 30,000.

DEVELOPMENT: Faced with Clashes, It&#39s Good to Talk

With clashing civilisations, as with clashing people, there's one strategy that works: talk your way out of it. Just how is, of course, the more difficult question.

ECUADOR: No Dial Tone, No Contract

The possible cancellation of the mobile telephone operating licence granted by Ecuador to Porta Celular, a company indirectly owned by Mexican multi-millionaire Carlos Slim, could set a precedent in Latin America.

LATIN AMERICA: New ‘Cyber Paradise’ for Paedophiles and Racists?

The crackdown in eastern Europe and the United States on websites posting racist content or child pornography could expose Latin America to the risk of becoming a new "cyber paradise" for on-line paedophilia and racism, experts say.

COMMUNICATIONS: Internet – Ruled by the Many, or by Special Interests?

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) being held in Rio de Janeiro Monday through Thursday, with more than 1,500 people attending, is discussing issues that are not yet a concern for the majority of users, but are already having a major impact on their lives.

LATIN AMERICA: Journey to Bring Big Screen to Small Towns

A young Argentine couple will set out from this capital city in December on an overland journey through 12 Latin American countries, as far as Mexico, taking their country’s films to small towns in rural areas, with backing from the state and civil society organisations.

TECHNOLOGY-SRI LANKA: Leapfrogging Out of Poverty on IT

In a north-central village, deep inside Sri Lanka’s backwoods, a young man is glued to a computer screen, pushing a mouse and filling in figures.

MEDIA: Quite the Biggest Look at Democracy

It is dubbed the "the world's largest ever factual multi-media event" by its producers, and it will be watched by a potential of 300 million viewers around the world.

BRAZIL: Warning – These Computers Come With Strings Attached

The declaration the Dell computer maker is requiring its Brazilian customers to sign, promising their computers will not be exported to the "axis of evil" or used for weapons development, according to reports, highlights the difficulties faced by scientific research due to U.S. geopolitical considerations.

TECHNOLOGY-CUBA: Widespread Resistance to Free Software

Although Cuba proclaimed its intention to change its computer operating systems for free software in 2005, the shift seems to depend more on the efforts of a small community of enthusiasts than on the state agencies that are officially in charge.

EUROPE: Microsoft Loses Case, Not Business

Microsoft will still wield enormous power in the global computer industry despite this week's ruling by a European court that the Seattle-based corporation has abused its monopoly.

GREECE: Mobile Operators Break the Law

The small black device that Panagiotis Vovos holds in his hands can measure the voltage produced by mobile phone network transmission antennas. It can detect voltages up to 7(Volt/metre).

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Digitising Police Archives to Clarify Past Abuses

With international support, experts in Guatemala are salvaging and digitising millions of National Police records discovered two years ago in a munitions depot. Thanks to their painstaking work, light could be shed on the tens of thousands of murders and forced disappearances committed during the country’s bloody 36-year civil war.

POLITICS-US: Attempts to De-Bug Voting Systems Before 2008 Elections

With 14 months remaining before the 2008 U.S. presidential election, many states are trying to fix security and transparency problems afflicting their voting machines and election systems. With its many system failures in the 2000 presidential election, one of the most prominent of these states is Florida.

RIGHTS-ZAMBIA: Cyberspace Casts Light on the Lives of Death Row Inmates

"Can governments solve urgent social or political problems by executing a few or even hundreds of their prisoners?" asks Benjamin Mawaya, sweltering on death row in Zambia’s Mukobeko high security prison in Kabwe, 150 kilometres from the capital of Lusaka.

EDUCATION-AFRICA: Learning at the Flick of a Switch

The role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in improving education throughout Africa has been in the spotlight over recent days at the e-Learning Africa Conference.

FINANCE-AFRICA: Mobile Phones Revolutionise Banking

Mobile phone banking is expanding across the region from South Africa to Kenya and is putting the poor directly in control of their own finances like never before.

BOLIVIA: Faster Internet Connections – For the Few

A varied crowd of academics, civil servants, and university and high school students gathered in the hall of the vice-presidential building to celebrate Internet Day. The main event was the launching of Internet II, a project to incorporate Bolivia into the cutting-edge Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (CLARA).

MEDIA-MEXICO: Broadcasting Law to Face Supreme Court Challenge

A year ago, the Mexican government and political parties caved in to pressure from powerful media consortia Televisa and TV Azteca, and passed a law that favoured the two broadcasting giants, to the detriment of aims to democratise the media.

Q&A: Victims in Colombia Are Gagged, the Public Misinformed

When a murder occurs in a Colombian community, the locals know who committed it: far-right paramilitaries, leftwing guerrillas, or the security forces. They also know if fighting really took place, or if the "enemy" bodies displayed on television as "trophies" by army officers were in fact dead civilians.

EAST AFRICA: Tackling the Digital Divide From a Regional Perspective

The digital divide between urban and rural areas in East Africa - and between rich and poor - continues to loom large, highlighting the need for initiatives that will enable all to benefit from information and communication technologies (ICTs).