BLANTYRE, Mar 18 (IPS) - The thickest book on secondary school teacher Hellen Ndalama’s desk is her indigenous language dictionary. It is also her most-used book.

JERUSALEM, Mar 17 (IPS) - Less than a hundred days to go, and the world looks on, often more with scepticism than anticipation.

KARACHI, Pakistan, Mar 17 (IPS) - Saleha Firdaus, a mother of two teenage children, has been moving to the Bollywood beat at a dance studio for over a year now and "loves every moment" of this personal time. For her part, 22-year-old Maheen Jafri was a "bedroom dancer" until she discovered a Bollywood and hip-hop dance studio and "shed my inhibitions totally."

MANAMA, Mar 16 (IPS) - Cunning rapists in Bahrain can avoid victimising virgins so they could escape the maximum penalty provided by law, and those who force themselves on young girls can evade punishment by promising to marry their victims.

LILONGWE, Mar 15 (IPS) - At the age of 66, village headman Kamwala of Dedza district in central Malawi is starting to feel the effects of ageing. He gets tired easily and needs frequent naps but says he cannot afford this luxury. He and his wife are caregivers to a one-year-old orphan.

ROTTERDAM, Mar 15 (IPS) - Arab cinema, which had a promising presence at international film festivals during the 1990s, may now be going through a declining phase for lack of patronage.

MEXICO CITY, Mar 14 (IPS) - Ten-year-old Jessica Algoneda leaps in the air, raising her arms and spinning around at her primary school in the Mexican capital, as if in honour of Terpsichore, the Greek muse of dance and poetry.

BEIJING, Mar 12 (IPS) - After Chen Lusheng, a police sergeant from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, died in December after an off-duty night of heavy drinking with local officials, his superiors tried to have him designated a "martyr" who "died in the line of duty," so that his family would receive greater compensation.

NAIROBI, Mar 10 (IPS) - Kenyans affected by the violence that erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections in 2007 may soon be able to speak out without fear. A new bill will offer better protection to state witnesses.

BANGKOK, Mar 10 (IPS) - Not even religious advocates and leaders and can say no to the power of online media, whose call they are heeding in order to spread various messages of spirituality.

SINGAPORE, Mar 10 (IPS) - An unfamiliar sight in Singapore – that of vehicles with foreign licence plates filling the car park – meets visitors at the basement of the city-state’s first casino, which opened nearly a month ago.

WINDHOEK, Mar 9 (IPS) - African hip-hop prides itself on a more positive portrayal of women, but traditional cultural attitudes towards women still dominate the industry, say Namibian female rappers.

QUITO, Mar 9 (IPS) - Science fiction blockbuster Avatar was the big loser in the Oscar awards ceremony - not only a blow for director James Cameron but also seen as a symbolic reverse in the struggle to recover Amazon rainforest areas in Ecuador from the effects of oil pollution.

LILONGWE, Mar 9 (IPS) - Mercy Gondwe, 51, from Rumphi in northern Malawi, was married for 34 years. When her husband died in 2008, she assumed she would inherit the land they had been cultivating together since they got married. But this was not the case.

KARACHI, Mar 8 (IPS) - Dressed in an abaya (long, loose gown worn by women to cover their dress) and a headscarf, Naseem Hameed cannot be recognised as she alights from a crowded, rickety public bus to reach her destination – the sports stadium.