POLITICS-INDIA: Right to Information Exposes World Bank Water Deal

India’s new right-to-information laws have drawn first blood - secret deals involving the World Bank to privatise water supply and sanitation in the Indian capital.

MEDIA: Banned in Gambia, Defiant in Ukraine

Journalists from Ukraine and Gambia were honoured this week with the International Press Freedom Award for persisting in their work even while facing serious threats against their lives.

DEVELOPMENT: Grow As Much As You Know

The rise of knowledge societies brings new opportunities for developing countries, says a report released Thursday by Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

MEDIA-COLOMBIA: Death Threats and Self-Censorship

They live in such fear that they dare not venture beyond the city limits. The death threats are periodically renewed, just in case it occurs to any of them that the danger has disappeared. They are reporters in the midst of Colombia's four-decade civil war.

COMMUNICATION: No Turning Back on Civil Society Participation

The most important advance made by the World Summit on the Information Society is having conceived a model of Internet governance in which governments, civil society and the private sector all participate on an equal footing, according to Uruguayan expert Raúl Echeberría.

TECHNOLOGY: Welcome to Ruralkenya.com

A generator rumbles behind the two-roomed building, which looks like one of the maize mills that dot Kenya's rural landscape. But, you're not likely to find a harvest of any sort in here - rather, food for thought.

NEPAL: A Sliver of Silver in Cloudy Skies

Nepal's strongman King Gyanendra named dates for elections earlier this month-and then enacted a law that hamstrings journalists' reporting of politics.

CULTURE: UNESCO Adopts Convention to Protect Diversity

The United Nations cultural body adopted an international treaty Thursday to protect cultural diversity, marking what experts say is a first but important moral victory in the long-running fight to preserve the world's cultural richness.

MEDIA: Iraq is Deadliest Beat For Reporters Since WWII

In its annual survey of press freedom around the world, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) once again ranked North Korea in last place of the 167 countries evaluated, closely preceded by Eritrea and Turkmenistan.

EDUCATION: Fighting Computer-Assisted Plagiarism in Latin America

Student plagiarism is becoming more and more common in Latin America, with the infinite possibilities offered by the Internet to those who follow the law of least effort.

CULTURE: UN Treaty Challenges “Planet Hollywood”

With the rest of the world poised to adopt a new United Nations treaty on cultural diversity, indications are that the United States is once again going to say no to multilateralism.

POLITICS-US: Washington on Tenterhooks Over Leak Case

Wrapping up a two-year investigation that a growing number of legal analysts expect to yield indictments of at least one, and possibly two, of the George W. Bush administration's most powerful men as early as this week, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has Washington on pins and needles.

COMMUNICATIONS-ARGENTINA: Computers Alone Can’t Bridge Digital Gap

"With these three computers and Internet access, it's as if we could reach up and touch the sky," exclaimed Analía Bonesso, the principal and teacher of all eight grades in a rural primary school in Argentina with no telephone, no radio, and only 14 students.

JAPAN: Rising Juvenile Violence Linked to Internet Games

A recent spate of horrifying murders, committed by youngsters who killed their friends or parents, has shaken Japan's pride in its supposedly disciplined and harmonious society and prompted calls to examine underlying causes.

COMMUNICATIONS: The Struggle for Real Control Over the Virtual World

The real world is involved in a battle for control over the virtual world, one of the central issues to be dealt with at the Nov. 16-18 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in the Tunisian capital.

CULTURE: Hotugandans.com + Red Pepper = Controversy

The spread of the internet has opened Uganda to a vast array of trends and influences that would have had little effect in previous years. However, a good many citizens who have peered into this brave new world are not sure they like what they see - especially the two pornography sites featuring Ugandans that took the country by surprise recently.

COMMUNICATIONS-LATIN AMERICA: Mobile Phones Only a Partial Solution

The statistics seem to reflect encouraging progress: the number of telephones per 100 inhabitants rose from 23.12 to 52.7 in South America between 1999 and 2004, while Central America experienced a leap from 17.24 to 47.9, more than tripling the population's access to telephone service.

COMMUNICATIONS: Road to Tunis Paved With Questions

With just six weeks to go before the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, a number of key issues remain unresolved, including the highly debated questions of Internet governance and civil society participation.

PAKISTAN: Cheap, Clean Energy Blowing in the Wind

Till about seven months back, the village of Ghulam Muhammad Goth, north of this port city, had no electricity. ''Now our village seems alive even after sunset, till almost midnight,'' says a beaming 18-year old Perween.

MEDIA: Tunisia Promoting Free Expression – But Not at Home

A coalition of 14 international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has expressed "deep concern" over the upsurge in attacks on freedom of expression in Tunisia - a country which next month will host the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

COMMUNICATIONS: Activists Denounce “Erosion” of NGO Participation in Summit

The unprecedented cooperation among governments, civil society and the private sector that has characterised the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process for the last three years was undermined this week by a decision adopted by government representatives.