by Preethi Nallu, IPS, Italy - Moves by the Burmese government to settle ethnic conflicts in the country, notably with the Karen in the mountainous eastern part of the country, have caught most observers by surprise.

by Vandana Shiva, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The seed is the first link in the food chain - and seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. If farmers do not have their own seeds or access to open pollinated varieties that they can save, improve and exchange, they have no seed sovereignty - and consequently no food sovereignty.

by Elahe Amani, Women News Network, USA - In an amazing coordinated campaign, a Lebanese advocacy group dedicated to protecting women from violence shook up the media world by working closely with men as they asked them to act decisively and without hesitation to stop violence against women.

by Charundi Panagoda, IPS, Italy - Two years ago, 40-year-old Vidya Sri decided to leave the devastating marriage her parents had forced her into nearly two decades ago. Alone for the first time, she began an earnest quest for support groups, women's organisations or service providers who might help her in the healing process.

by Jessica Buchleitner, Women News Network, USA-Bringing rural women’s voices to the decision making table was one of the discussions throughout the recent two week Durban Climate Talks (COP17) which ended on 9 December. One of the conference goals was to bring greater insights for action with solutions for climate change. But are global leaders bringing rural women’s voices to the table?

by Rocío Alorda, Latin America Press, Peru - Use of highly toxic pesticides and other farming chemicals in Chile is rampant, posing serious health risks and damages for the farmers who use them. In response, on Dec. 19, the Agriculture Ministry banned the import, export and sale of several of these substances that could cause cancer among other diseases.

by Mona Alami, IPS, Italy - Lebanese personal laws also stifle basic freedoms, such as the right to decide how to dispose of a deceased loved one’s remains. Lebanese Muslim and Orthodox communities, for example, do not allow cremation, even if the deceased explicitly requested it in writing in a will. The practice is, however, accepted by the Catholic and Protestant churches.

by Marianne de Nazareth, Countercurrents, India - The report, Green Economy in a Blue World, argues that the ecological health and economic productivity of marine and coastal ecosystems, which are currently in decline around the globe, can be boosted by shifting to a more sustainable economic paradigm that taps their natural potential - from generating renewable energy and promoting eco-tourism, to sustainable fisheries and transport.

by Katy Migiro, AlterNet, UK - Thousands of people in the Horn of Africa died needlessly last year because of the slow response to early warning signs, Oxfam and Save the Children say in a report.

by Olga Rodriguez, Associated Press, USA - Unlike Guatemala or China, Mexico has not been a popular destination for foreigners looking to adopt, perhaps because the process, done by law, is complicated. "The legal adoption process in Mexico is difficult, but cheating in Mexico is very easy," Estrada said.

by Cynthia McKinney, Pambazuka News, Kenya - The ‘Arab Spring’ has sprung and the indelible fingerprints of malignant foreign financed operations must be erased if the people are to have a chance to truly govern themselves. Unfortunately, these foreign-inspired organizations are present and operating in just about every country in the world. The threat is ever-present like sleeping cells - all that is needed is that the right word to ‘activate’ be given.

by Amira Hass, Haaretz, Israel - Who will protect Gaza citizens from their supposed defenders - the government and armed resistance groups?

by Kerry-anne Mendoza, OpenDemocracy, UK - The Occupy Movement, far from having no programme, has revolutionized our sense of self. The Citizen of the World adopts a panoramic view of society and takes the interests of others all over the world to be as important as her or his self interest.

by Guadalupe Cruz Jaimes, IPS, Italy - 2012 will be a "very challenging" year for Mexico in terms of job creation, as Chinese goods begin flooding the country as a result of the implementation of a trade agreement that opens the door to imports from that country.

by Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, UK - The number of unsafe abortions is rising around the world, while what appeared to be a steady decline in abortion rates in the 1990s has stalled, according to an authoritative new report.

by Anke Rasper, Deutsche Welle, Germany - Price hikes for staple foods hit poor people in developing countries the hardest. Speculation is part of the reason why food prices are peaking again and leaving nearly a billion people without adequate access to food.

by Antoaneta Becker, IPS, Italy - President Hu Jintao of China made headlines in the early days of the new year saying China and the West were engaged in an escalating culture war, and calling on Chinese people to strengthen cultural production to defend themselves against the assault.

by Katy Waldman, Slate, USA - After an hour and a half of trying to soften an increasingly furious—and personal— debate over Palestinian membership in the United Nations on Tuesday, moderator John Donvan gave up and wearily asked his panelists for closing statements. Aaron David Miller started off. “I realize in the last 90 minutes that perhaps one of the most astute things I’ve done, the best decisions I’ve made, was to leave the Arab-Israeli negotiating table,” he quipped.

by Meera Dalal, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The tropical disease kills more people annually than cancer, but researchers think they can win the fight.

by Rahila Gupta, OpenDemocracy, UK - Feminism needs to recapture the state from the neoliberal project to which it is in hock in order to make it deliver for women. It must guard against atomisation and recover its transformative aspirations to shape the new social order that is hovering on the horizon.

by Emily Buchanan, BBC United Kingdom,- A law allowing only women to work in lingerie shops in Saudi Arabia is coming into force. Campaigners hope this will end decades of awkwardness in the Islamic kingdom where women have always been served by male shop assistants.

by Rebecca Murray, IPS, Italy - Families will sell their women and they will work as prostitutes. The reason we don’t see many cases is because of the nature of the culture. These women don’t have options because a lot of the time the families won’t accept them back because of shame. And they cannot approach social workers or organisations for help as they might be ultimately killed.

by Eva Bartlett, IPS, Italy - Yousef walks barefoot into a children's room with four beds and points to a snoopy-blanketed bed by the window. "That's where I sleep," he says. A red remote-controlled toy racecar sits atop a new mini-laptop. The closet is full of clothes, a pot of soup simmering on the gas range in the spacious kitchen, and the wooden dining table is piled with seasonal fruit.

Unlike the overwhelming majority of children in the Gaza Strip, the seven-year-old's naked feet are not a result of poverty. Quite the opposite, his home in the Rafah-based SOS Children's Village, run by an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), does not leave him wanting for shoes, clothes, school supplies, regular meals or a safe abode.

His home, one of 14 in the village hosting 111 orphans, is new, has plenty of natural light and is larger than the cramped refugee camp homes in which more than 75 percent of Gaza's population lives. Read full article on IPS

by Anastasia Moloney, Alertnet, UK - Haiti is trying to build a democracy, and without good journalists and a strong media sector you can't have informed citizen participation or accountability.

by Polina Bykhovskaya, OpenDemocracy, UK - Is it possible to challenge censors without losing your livelihood? Polina Bykhovskaya interviews the men and women who wanted to change the world but ended up in the business of job preservation (their's and Putin's)

by Lee Middleton, IPS, Italy - Something unusual is happening in Atlantis. Created in the 1970s to fulfill the apartheid government's agenda to evict "coloured" South Africans from Cape Town, Atlantis has always been best known as the city that apartheid built.

by Sonia Phalnikar, Deutsche Welle, Germany - The European Union has unveiled a strategy called 'No-Disconnect' to help online activists living under oppressive regimes get their message out without fear of state surveillance.

by Bina Shah, Dawn, Pakistan - The controversial Veena Malik cover has got Pakistanis talking — about women, about sexuality and about empowerment — and it seems everyone`s got an opinion concerning Ms Malik`s decision to pose for the men`s magazine across the border.

by Emily-Anne Owen, IPS, Italy - China is experiencing the worst crackdown since 1989 with a rising number of enforced disappearances of activists, a prominent Chinese dissident now living in exile has stated.

by Rebecca Johnson, OpenDemocracy, UK - Women’s groups such as Women in Black have long led the way in challenging the mindsets and structures of patriarchal power and militarism, but men must recognise that they have the primary responsibility to make the changes.

by Cecilia Remón, Latin American Press, Peru - “Which is more important: water or gold? You don’t drink gold, you don’t eat gold. So mining cannot take over the waterbeds,” said President Ollanta Humala, during his campaign last April in the northern city of Cajamarca, one of Peru’s main mining cities.

by Kim Ghatta, BBC, UK - Hillary Clinton's visit comes amid hopes that Burma may finally be embarking on the path of reform, and could signal the beginning of a turning point for the long ostracised Asian country. Despite elections decried as a sham last year, Burma's military-backed civilian leadership has taken unexpected steps towards reform by releasing dozens of political prisoners and relaxing some media restrictions.

by Anastasia Moloney, AlertNet, UK - Violent crime in the Haitian capital has decreased in recent years and less than a quarter of residents view crime as a major problem, according to researchers.

by Paulina Tambakaki, OpenDemocracy, UK - It has been argued that the euro-crisis and the events unfolding during the past week raise some serious questions about democracy in the member states of the European Union. The reason behind these questions is the formation of governments headed by technocrats (first in Greece, and now in Italy) following the forced removal of prime ministers viewed, suddenly, as weak and spineless.

by Ann Wright, Common Dreams, USA - Thousands of Egyptians perform Friday prayers during a rally in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Tens of thousands of protesters chanting, "Leave, leave!" are rapidly filling up Cairo's Tahrir Square in what promises to be a massive demonstration to force Egypt's ruling military council to yield power. The Friday rally is dubbed by organizers as "The Last Chance Million-Man Protest."

by Jane Paulick, Deutsche Welle, Germany - Berlin's long-buried imperial past has come back into fashion.

by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Huffington Post, USA - Right now, every day, American families are facing decisions between putting food on the table, paying the rent, buying school supplies, and obtaining medical care and prescription drugs. This is no time to leave those who count on unemployment insurance out in the cold.

by Sudeshna Sarkar, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The shrinking and retreating of the Himalayan glaciers - which provide life-giving water to over a billion people - became visible after early 1970. Three decades later, the phenomenon accelerated, resulting in the formation of moraine-dammed glacial lakes which are swelling ominously.

by Marieme Helie Lucas, Pambazuka News, Kenya - In an article written on the eve of the country’s elections last month, Marieme Helie Lucas explores ‘what women have to lose, should fundamentalists come to power in Tunisia.’

by Katy Migiro, AlertNet, UK - As the world's poorest continent, Africa is also the most vulnerable to the extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels brought by climate change.

by Rodanthi Tzanelli, OpenDemocracy, UK - Parading on Greek National Days used to be the quintessential celebration of Greek identity. In the age of austerity it has evolved into an arena of contestation of rituals Greeks used to take for granted.

by Miriam Gathigah, IPS, Italy – On the road between the Kenyan and Somali border lie the dead bodies of children who have succumbed to the famine and the hardships of making the journey from their drought-stricken villages to Kenya.

by Erica Silverman, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Eid al-Adha – the Feast of Sacrifice – that fell Monday is one of the most important holidays in the Muslim calendar. This usually festive season reveals the poverty and desperation still gripping most Palestinians in Gaza.

by Sabine Ripperger, Deutsche Welle, Germany - Those who are threatened with forced marriage risk being isolated from their own family if they try to resist. The real number of people who are intimidated into marriage is much higher but it's impossible to accurately quantify the scale of the issue.

by Barbara Slavin, Asia Times, Hong Kong - A new report on Iran's nuclear program provides substantial evidence that Iran carried out extensive research into how to make a nuclear weapon prior to 2003, but is shaky about how much work has continued.

by Susan Abad, Latin American Press, Peru - On Sept. 22, Cartagena became the first Colombian city to reach a 99% literacy rate before the year 2015, one of the Millennium Development Goals.

by Carolyn Presutti, Voice of America, USA - Unemployment in Haiti is 40% - the rate of underemployment is even higher. But as high as that sounds, it's actually much lower than 10 years ago. One reason for that is the resourcefulness of the Haitian people.

by Suvendrini Kakuchi, IPS, Italy - Hundreds of Japanese women have been converging on the Japanese capital demanding better relief for some 30,000 children exposed to nuclear radiation by the Fukushima meltdown.

by Barbara Hardinghaus, Der Spiegel, Germany - Libya's dictator may be dead, but some of the rebels who deposed him are still hunting down Gadhafi's mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa. The fighting has driven thousands of people out of the town of Tawargha, where many regime loyalists lived. Many have been arrested and are being tortured, says Human Rights Watch.

by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, Countercurrents, India - The Assad regime in Syria is facing increased scrutiny for its handling of demonstrators. The Syrian opposition has asked for arms and NATO intervention similar to what was witnessed in Libya . Washington Hawks such as former presidential candidate and U.S. Senator John McCain have called for military intervention in Syria to “protect civilians.”