FINANCE-US: Helping People One Paycheque From Disaster

A decade ago, few could envision that making a charitable donation would be as simple as a mouse click.

CUBA: Emerging Community of Bloggers?

Blogging has finally hit Cuba, despite the challenge of gaining access to the Internet and the limited number of home computers on the island, and the emergence of a Cuban community of bloggers may soon be more than just wishful thinking.

CULTURE-CAMBODIA: 'We Don't Have a Film Industry'

Internationally acclaimed director Rithy Panh remembers how, as young boy in pre-war Phnom Penh, cinema played a central role in his family life.

HONDURAS: Government Advertising Allocation as “Subtle Censorship”

Government practices for allocating official advertising to the Honduran media include reward and punishment policies, payments to individual journalists, and even denial of access to public information - mechanisms that interfere with freedom of expression and the right to information, according to experts.

UGANDA: Radio Drama Strengthens Women’s Voices

Fifteen-year-old Taboni's parents are in a bind. Their daughter has been raped by the commandant of the squalid internally-displaced persons camp they call home, and they do not know what to do.

POLITICS: U.S. War on al Qaeda Widely Viewed as a Bust

The U.S. is failing to rein in its primary target in the "global war on terror" - al Qaeda - according to a new poll of 23 countries across the globe.

POLITICS: Neo-cons, Ex-Israeli Diplomats Push Islamophobic Video

A group of hard-line U.S. neo-conservatives and former Israeli diplomats, among others, are behind the mass distribution, ahead of the November U.S. presidential election, of a controversial DVD that critics have denounced as Islamophobic.

MEDIA: Lula a "Tireless Advocate" for the Poor and Landless

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who rose from a poor childhood to lead a growing economic powerhouse that has placed the ideal of inclusive prosperity at the centre of its development policies, received the Inter Press Service (IPS) International Achievement Award 2008 Monday.

POLITICS-US: Anti-Islam Film Targets “Swing State” Voters

Millions of voters in U.S. states crucial to this fall's presidential election received DVD copies of a controversial documentary film as advertising inserts in their morning newspapers over the past week, with more expected to be sent out over the upcoming weekend.

CHILE: Salvador Allende – Greatest Chilean, by Popular Acclaim

The late socialist President Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by the armed forces on Sept. 11, 1973, was elected the "greatest Chilean in history" in a viewers' poll organised by a television programme that stirred up controversy.

Q&A: "Freedom of Expression Goes Hand in Hand with Justice"

Social inequality is "the main" problem for freedom of expression in Latin America, said Frank La Rue Lewy, who was named United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression on Aug. 1.

POLITICS-CAUCASUS: Media Guilty as 'Fog of War' Clears

As the ‘fog of war’ clears over the Caucasus and the United Nations prepares to set up peace missions in Abhkazia and South Ossetia, what stands out is the apparently partisan role played by Western media in last month’s five-day armed conflict.

MEDIA-THAILAND: Satellite TV Boosts Anti-Gov’t Protests

On first impressions, Thailand’s political crisis appears to be an attempt to shape the future of democracy in a kingdom that has witnessed 18 military coups. But the anger that drives a protest movement to topple an elected administration has pitted it against the old media order.

MEDIA-INDIA: Columnists Support Kashmir's Secession

"Anti-national" is the charge hurled in India at the usual radical suspects who argue for the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.

MEDIA-MALAYSIA: Crackdown Follows Electoral Setback

Abandoning a decade-old promise to maintain Internet freedom, the government has closed down the popular and controversial ‘Malaysia Today’ web portal, known for consistently exposing the misdeeds of officialdom and the failings of individual leaders.

PAKISTAN: Outlawed Taliban Have Free Run of Media

Taliban factions in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and tribal areas have been outlawed and their accounts frozen by the Pakistan government. But that has not in the least bit altered their presence in the media.

MEDIA-PHILIPPINES: Community Radio – Balm in Troubled Areas

Amidst the raging conflict between government forces and Muslim rebels on the island of Mindanao, the religiously mixed population in the North Cotabato region looks to a community radio station as a beacon of peace.

CHILE: Keeping Indigenous Languages Alive

"Mari, mari!" shout the excited group of 20 Chilean, Peruvian and Ecuadorean three- and four-year-olds, using the Mapuche language greeting to welcome a visitor to their intercultural day care centre in Santiago.

Q&A: Finding New Ways To Reach Farmers

When beekeepers in central and eastern Uganda got vouchers to go online at internet cafés, their most popular query was how to treat bee stings. A local agricultural information provider replied in Baganda, the local language.

POLITICS-US: Anti-Obama Echo Chamber in Full Swing

Right-wing groups are stepping up their campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with two new books on the best-seller lists, another on the verge of publication, and a full-length documentary that will premiere during the party conventions later this month.

MALAYSIA: Crackdown on Civil Rights, Media Feared

A series of tough measures in recent weeks has raised fears of a major crackdown against tolerance and dissent as rival political forces battle for state power in a society made fragile by economic uncertainties and decades of autocratic rule.