ELECTIONS-US: E-Voting Squeaks By With Passing Grade

An estimated 80 to 90 percent of the nearly 79 million U.S. voters either cast their mid-term elections ballot by computer on Tuesday or had their vote tabulated that way, and as experts had predicted, there were various glitches with electronic voting machines throughout the country.

DEVELOPMENT: U.S. Teens Take a Virtual Journey to Haiti

Brooklyn's South Shore High School is no walk in the park. Low test scores combined with periodic stabbings, beatings and theft have made it one of New York's most troubled schools. All but two percent of the more than 2,000 students are minority. Many are low-income and almost half never graduate.

RIGHTS: Finnish Artists Honour Murdered Russian Journalist

Several Finnish artists and journalists have come together to produce a song to honour the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

U.S./HAITI: Top Republicans Leave Telecom Accused of Bribery

Five nationally prominent U.S. Republicans, the independent board members of a corporation that has been charged with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to get a sweetheart telecom deal in Haiti, are leaving its board.

MEDIA: Honouring the Best Who Cover the Worst

"I am not afraid of being killed," says Egyptian journalist Abeer Al-Askary, who has been repeatedly threatened and beaten by Egyptian government security forces.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Countering Coerced Confessions

The release of Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, one of Iran’s more famous prisoners of conscience in recent years, was not accompanied by the usual round of televised confessions.

POLITICS-US: Republicans Spring a New “Winning” Strategy

In the final days before the November elections, George W. Bush administration surrogates have taken to asking whoever they are conversing with about the Iraq war, "Do you want us to win in Iraq?"

POLITICS-US: Jews Give Bush, Republicans Failing Grades

Despite Republican efforts, led by President George W. Bush, to align the party squarely behind the policies of successive right-wing governments in Israel, U.S. Jews are expected to vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates in next week's elections.

HAITI/U.S.: Govt Corruption Suit Stalls for Lack of Funds

The U.S. Justice Department is withholding agreement to share assets seized from Haitian drug traffickers to finance a lawsuit by the Haitian government charging former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide with taking bribes.

REFUGEES: Tibetans Survive Border Guards, Reach Nepal Capital

A group of 43 Tibetans shot at by a Chinese border patrol while trying to cross into Nepal, was to arrive in the capital late Monday, according to the United Nations.

MEDIA-THAILAND: Coup Masters Ban Community Radio

While Thailand's military-appointed prime minister seeks international approval and Bangkok's affluent citizens continue to praise last month's coup, a different reality is unfolding in the country's north and north-east provinces. One word sums it up: censorship.

MEXICO: Radio Waves Incite Rebellion in Oaxaca

"Compañeros, the enemy is the State." That was Thursday's wake-up call to its listeners from La Ley, a private radio station taken over by activists in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, which is fuelling social unrest that has the state government backed into a corner.

CULTURE-PAKISTAN: Mai Tells Her Tale in ‘Shame’

She is in the news again. This time appearing in a documentary film 'Shame', that tells the tale of a village council ordering her to be gang-raped as retributive punishment.

POLITICS: Musharraf’s Memoir Sets Cats Among Pigeons

By launching his memoir amidst a two week-long high-powered publicity blitz across three continents, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has set a cat, or rather several cats, among the pigeons.

SPORTS-COLOMBIA: Fighting Violence – in the Stadiums

Father Alirio López, standing in the middle of the stadium dressed in a jersey with the logos of the two Colombian football teams that are playing each other that day, calls on fans to stay calm and urges them to watch the game in peace.

POLITICS: Iraqis Weary of Violence, U.S. Presence

Iraqis - especially the majority Shiites - are increasingly angry and frustrated about their situation and impatient for U.S. troops to leave, but most do not believe their country will fall apart, according to a major new poll released here Wednesday by the University of Maryland's Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

MIDDLE EAST: Tiny Qatar Gains Big From Lebanon Crisis

The war between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah ended in early August without a clear winner. But the five-week crisis once again exposed the inherent divisions among members of the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and gave Qatar an opportunity to use the row to score diplomatic points against its detractors.

INDONESIA: Journalism as Jihad

An Indonesian journalist has news for those of the country's Muslims who have turned to terrorism to express rage. ''Journalism is my jihad,'' says Agung Rulianto, who leads a team of investigative reporters for the 'Tempo' weekly magazine.

MEDIA: Another Casualty in Chechnya

A year after elections, little promise is in sight for the development of free and independent media in the autonomous republic of Chechnya.

HEALTH-INDONESIA: Building Awareness Against Bird Flu

On a recent evening, Muhammad Farhan worked the crowd in an up-market café with the banter that has earned him fame as one of Indonesia's popular talk show hosts. A new book by a local author- In Bed with Models'- set the tone for this off-the-air performance.

POLITICS: Growing Distrust Among Publics of Asian Powers

Nationalist sentiment and distrust of traditional rivals appear to be on the rise among the publics of key powers in Asia, according to recent surveys of five of the region's countries released here Thursday by the Pew Global Attitudes Project.