Fresh music by the late Jamaican toaster Prince Far I, a posthumous live set from reggae great Peter Tosh and new music by glamorous veteran Mexican singer Lucha Villa highlight this week's releases. Music from China, the Caribbean and Latin America is also scheduled to hit the racks.

Nelson Mandela's favorite band, South Africa's Amampondo, who are currently touring North America, release Vuyani (Celebrate) on M.E.L.T. 2000. And the Bahamas' Baha Men, whose bubbly mixture of native junkanoo music with Latin rhythms has won them many friends over the last decade, put out Who Let the Dogs Out (S-Curve).

The music of George Dalaras, the Greek singer who has been compared to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, is distilled into Very Best of George Dalaras (Ark21).

The live musical meeting in Las Vegas between veteran Arab singers Wadi Al-Safi, from Lebanon, and Syria's Sabah Fakhri along with legendary modern oud player Simon Shaheen yields Two Tenors & Qantara (Ark 21). The disc includes Al-Safi's "Lubnan" (Lebanon) (RealAudio excerpt) and Fakhri's "Al-Lulu Manoud" (The Pearls) (RealAudio excerpt).

Tosh, one of the original Wailers alongside Bob Marley, was killed in 1987. Live at the One Peace Concert (JAD) captures a Toronto performance. Gravel-voiced Prince Far I, one of the island's great toasters (Jamaica's forerunners of rap), posthumously delivers the conscious goods with Under Heavy Manners (Tp), a reference to the island's political strife during the '70s.

The new Hugo label focuses on both traditional and contemporary music from China. Its new batch of releases includes Wong Ching's White Snow in Early Spring, Liu Ming-Yuan's Favorite Huqin Pieces and Copper Idiophobes Over the Drums, by avant-garde composer Wang Yi-Dong.

Cuban son group Vieja Trova Santiaguera, who've worked with Compay Segundo in the past, release Domino (Virgin France). Brazilian singer Nana Caymmi, part of the MPB (Brazilian popular music) movement and best known for her emotional ballads, releases Sangre de Mi Alma (EMI). A whole crew of female Latin singers — including Susana Baca and Mercedes Sosa — parade their wares on Putumayo's Latinas anthology. And husky-voiced mariachi and ranchero singer Villa, whose career began in Mexico in 1962, releases Con Tamora.

Other new Caribbean albums include Soca Compilation 2000 (Tp), reggae star Jimmy Cliff's budget-priced hits collection, You Can Get It If You Really Want ... The Best of Jimmy Cliff (Music Club), the late Inner Circle frontman Jacob Miller's I'm Just a Dread (Tp) and late reggae star Dennis Brown's May Your Food Basket Never Empty (RAS).

And the globe-trotting Rough Guide series continues with anthologies devoted to Klezmer, Congolese Soukous and Wales (all World Music Network).