ISRAEL: Silicon Wadi Shows the Way

Alex Argov is now onto his fifth high-tech company. A serial entrepreneur, Argov's latest product is an Internet-based telephone that scrambles messages, making it almost impossible to eavesdrop on a conversation.

POLITICS: Poll Backs Greater U.N. Role in Mideast Peace

A majority of global publics say their governments should "not take either side" in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, instead supporting a call for the United Nations to play a greater role in regional peace, according to a new international poll of 18 countries released here Tuesday.

MIDEAST: Israelis Assault Award Winning IPS Journalist

Mohammed Omer, the Gaza correspondent of IPS, and joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, was strip-searched at gunpoint, assaulted and abused by Israeli security officials at the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday as he tried to return home to Gaza.

MEDIA: Against Giant Odds, A Touch of Triumph

Parents call it the strawberry coloured nightmare. In the suburbs of Cape Town in South Africa they call it 'tik'. Something that mimics the effect of adrenalin. The news feature on 'tik' explores its dangerous spread, interviewing parents and others who talk about the devastation this addiction is bringing to homes and lives. 'Tik' is coloured pink, we learn, to make it more attractive to teenagers.

MEDIA: IPS Has New Chairman

The IPS International Association has chosen Federico Mayor as new chair of its Board of Directors. He replaces Mario Soares, former President of Portugal (1986-1996), who has been guiding the IPS Board since 2002.

RIGHTS: Torture Widely Viewed as “Immoral”

A new poll on the official use of torture shows that people worldwide oppose it, but more than one-third also say an exception should be made if it can extract information from "terrorists" to "save innocent lives".

DEVELOPMENT: Mobile Phones Soar in Internet-Starved Africa

The beleaguered African continent continues to lag far behind the rest of the world in battling poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS, but it is making dramatic progress in the field of information and communications technologies (ICTs).

RIGHTS: Poll Finds Scant Support for Criminalising Abortion

A new poll reveals that three-quarters of respondents in 18 geographically and culturally diverse countries reject the use of criminal penalties to discourage abortions.

BRAZIL: Delivery Boy Newshounds Show Life in Sao Paulo

Cleyton Perroni’s motorbike has been a part of his life since he was 12. But 19 years later, its role changed from recreation to an essential working tool as, equipped with a cell phone, he became a reporter of daily life in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo.

LEBANON: Newsrooms Fall Prey to Seven Deadly Sins

Prejudiced reporting is not uncommon anywhere, but in Lebanon the level of news distortion has taken on a new dimension as a result of assassinations, physical threats, political pressure, biased reporting, lack of professionalism, rampant corruption and self-censorship. These are the seven deadly sins that have increasingly been plaguing the Lebanese media over the years.

POLITICS: Bush Inspires Least Confidence as World Leader

While historians here debate whether George W. Bush has been the worst president in U.S. history, a global consensus that he inspires the least confidence of all the world's major leaders appears to have emerged.

POLITICS-US: Global Image Buoyed by Prospect of Change

After a virtually relentless fall during the seven-year reign of President George W. Bush, Washington's image abroad rebounded modestly in 2007, according to the latest edition of the annual Pew Global Attitudes Project survey of 24 countries released here Thursday.

Q&A: 'Multicultural Society Can't Be Dissolved Like a Marriage'

"This looks like a toothpaste commercial. People in the Netherlands don't buy that." Rachida Azough shows a flyer of the European Union to promote the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. It depicts a model with a bright smile holding a camera, with the tag line 'Cultures in my street'.

MEXICO: Murder of Indigenous Reporters Fuels Hatred, Division

No one has been brought to justice for the murders of two young indigenous reporters in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in April, a case that has mobilised social activists and drawn condemnation from UNESCO.

RIGHTS-CHILE: Growing Outcry Over Filmmaker’s Arrest

There is growing international alarm over the arrest of Chilean filmmaker Elena Varela, who was taken into custody by police a month ago while working on an investigative documentary on the conflicts between lumber companies and the Mapuche indigenous people in southern Chile.

WOMEN-MEDIA: Stuck at the Starting Gate

"We should not be all that surprised that we are stalled," says Jane Ransom, executive director of the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), referring to the absence of women leaders in media organisations.

MEDIA-SINGAPORE: Restrictions Follow Critics to Cyberspace

When Lee Hsien Loong became Singapore’s prime minister after his father, Lee Kuan Yew, four years ago, he encouraged citizens to "feel free to express diverse views, pursue unconventional ideas, or simply be different". Today, these hopes for a city-state that can be more relaxed about criticism and more open to frank debate appear to have been too high.

WOMEN-MEDIA: Conspicuous By Their Absence

Observe any summit picture - you won't find many women. The mystery of female underrepresentation in the echelons of power persists: after so many decades of the feminist movement, why are women at the helm scarce? A look at the media sector may provide some answers.

MEDIA-INDIA: Child Scribes in Villages Raise Development Issues

Children should be seen, not heard - an adage that remains in practice in most parts of rural India even today where the orthodox patriarchal traditions continue to hold sway in tightly-knit local communities.

MEDIA: Midwife for an Inclusive Society

Changing society to bring about greater respect for diversity requires the participation of the mainstream press, despite the combination of alternative media and the various forums, blogs and networks on the Internet that promote a more democratic flow of information.

RIGHTS-ETHIOPIA: Press Freedom Still Under Attack

The May edition of popular Ethiopian entertainment magazine Enku did not appear on newsstands as scheduled this month. Ethiopian police impounded all 10,000 copies before they could be distributed; Alemayehu Mahtemework, the magazine's publisher and deputy editor, was charged with threatening public order and spent five days in detention, along with three of his staff.