Fourteen years ago, Fang Xin declared war on her parents. Whatever they wantedof her, Fang, now 28, did the opposite. She refused to watch news broadcasts bythe state's China Central Television, or the annual Spring Festival Gala, with herfather and mother. She would not eat meals with her family. When it came timefor university, she ignored her parents' wishes and attended a school far fromher hometown. The latest battle was fought last year, when her parents wantedFang to become a mother.

James Banda, 27, is an unemployed youth although he occasionally is hired to act as a bus conductor at Lusaka's Kulima Tower Bus Station. He may not have a permanent job, but it is easy to find him. Anyone looking for him just has to go to the bus station and ask. Everyone knows who he is. Banda, or‘ba-Jay' as people call him, is a young man who commands a lot of respect from his friends–he is a thug for hire.

In her 30s, Muza has been married for years but has managed toremain financially independent. In fact, she was even able tohelp build the home she has with her husband, using the moneyshe earned as a teacher.

Television news images of a phony policeman on a motorcycleescorting a sedan travelling against the flow of traffic–submitted by a passing motorist–is a sign of the changingface of journalism and public involvement in the Philippines.

It's Friday night, and in a"favela"(shanty town) in this Brazilian city, a group ofmen relax with a beer after a hard week, while a song can be heard above therowdy chatter.

The threats against officials and ordinary people alike havenot stopped, with yet another suicide bomber sowing terror inthe district's main town just on Jul. 15.

More than a year after the riots in China's remote Xinjiangautonomous region, the country's bloodiest ethnic clash indecades, calm has returned to the capital Urumqi. But theunderlying tensions remain–tensions that Beijing will beforced to address as it moves forward in its campaign todevelop the country's west.

Mable Malinda wants to contest the local government elections but the independent candidate who is using her life savings to fund her campaign only has 500 dollars left in her bank account. She has already spent three times as much buying handouts for voters–an unofficial requirement when contesting elections in Malawi.

"You can only have one mother,"as the saying goes, but in Brazil there are 215ways of becoming a mother, one for each of the ethnic groups in this SouthAmerican country. Promoting maternal health while respecting cultural traditionsis a major health challenge.

In New Zealand, where Sujinrat Prachathai enjoys resident status, she is awoman able to append‘Mrs' to her name to signify that she is married. Here inThailand, however, she has to be addressed as‘Mr' since she is still consideredmale even though she underwent a sex-change operation years ago.

The FIFA Football World Cup is presented -- and felt emotionally by millions --as a contest amongst countries in which national honour is at stake. But it isalso a private business, controlled by a small group of people who exploitpatriotism and foment rivalries in marketing the"product."

Unmindful of the monsoons lashing the Dehradun area in the Himalayanfoothills in northern India, Girdhari Singh returns from work daily with aheadload of wood that he finds along the road, and stacks it to dry in thecattleshed.

Throughout the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, organisers have insisted thatthe legacy of the event goes far beyond the sporting spectacle. In the dustystreets of a Windhoek township, Deon Namiseb believes this is true.

The Statute of Racial Equality, soon to be signed into law inBrazil, is at the centre of a controversy between those whoconsider it a historical achievement, like the abolition ofslavery in 1888, and those who see it as failing to satisfythe demands of the black movement.

Minah Ndzinisa spends every day selling fruit and vegetables at the outdoor Mbabane Market, braving the rain, wind and cold for almost 20 years."I was in the same cold even in the 1990s when we used to have only one woman Member of Parliament."