by Elena Milashina, Novaya Gazeta, Russia - The founders of Voice of Beslan have been excluded from their organization by the court’s decision.

by Constanza Vieira, IPS News, Colombia - Venezuelan President’s efforts to broker a humanitarian agreement for the release of hostages held by Colombia’s guerrillas have already begun to bear fruit.

by Nina Berman, Spiegel International, Germany - Photographer sheds new light on American Iraqi war veterans.

by Elizabeth MacDonald & Chana R. Schoenberger, Forbes, USA - For the second year in a row Angela Merkel,
the first woman to become chancellor of Germany, ranks No. 1.

by Christine Toomey, The Sunday Times, UK - In India, nearly a million baby girls are aborted each year. And it’s not just an Asian phenomenon — female foeticide’ is taking place worldwide.

by Kate Connolly, The Guardian, UK - Germany's largest synagogue, an architectural and historical landmark in the centre of Berlin, will reopen today after extensive restoration work.

by Raja Zarith Idris, The Star Online, Malaysia - While we celebrate 50 years of our nation’s success and progress, we should also look at making ourselves better people through actions rather than mere words.

by Mary Kaldor, openDemocracy - The seizure, and sometimes killing, of civilian hostages is not random violence but part of a deliberate strategy that is changing the relationship between war and politics.

by Benazir Bhutto, Los Angeles Times, USA - For the sake of the civilized world, democracy must overcome extremism.

by Joy Hepp, Guadalajara Reporter, Mexico - No one can quite believe that the Yucatan peninsula escaped virtually unharmed from one of the most brutal Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history.

by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal, USA - Two years after Katrina, New Orleans desperately needs law and order.

by Ruth Sinai & Barak Ravid, Haaretz, Israel - Israel plans a border fence and taking 500 refugees from Darfur.

by Ruth Ansah Ayisi, IPS News, Mocambique -
57 percent of the rural population - nine million people - do not have access to potable water.

by Cleo Paskal, chinadialogue - Scientists predict that, within decades, the Arctic may be ice-free in summer.

by Suzanne Presto, VOA News, USA - United Nation's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday formally announced his plans to travel to Sudan next week.

by Tanya Lokshina, OpenDemocracy - No one doubts that the motive for Anna's murder was political. In Russia too many people, forces and agencies would like to get rid of an uncompromising, relentless journalist.

by Bronwen Maddox, The Times, UK - The success of Abdullah Gül in becoming Turkey’s new President is a victory for democracy. But it is a blow for secularism, in that it accurately reflects the new strength of the conservative, low-key Islamic voters from the heart of Anatolia at the expense of the secular cities.

by Sagarika Ghose, Outlook India, India - The Indian woman is so sexy and beautiful that she's forgotten to be independent...

by Suzan Crile, The Daily Star, Lebanon - The objective is to motivate a generation of young Lebanese by providing them with skills that will enable them to be effective agents of social change.

by Caroline Briggs, BBC News, New Orleans - When Katrina blew her fury across New Orleans in August 2005, she ripped the very heart out of the city. The music.

by Sabrina Tavernise & Sebnem Arsu, International Herald Tribune, France -
"Has the government limited women's rights?" Gul, 56, asked a panel of newspaper editors on national television, hoping to persuade the Turkish establishment that it had nothing to fear from his candidacy.

by Aunohita Mojumdar, Financial Times, UK - This year’s opium harvest in Afghanistan is projected to reach a record high, up 34 per cent on 2006, with Helmand province ‘single-handedly’ becoming the world’s largest source of illicit drugs, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said on Monday.

by Yulia Latynina, Novaya Gazeta, Russia - It turns out that the missile was dropped in Georgia so that Lieutenant General Khvorov could make a statement that Russia has been hurt again.

by Amanda Griscom Little, Salon, USA - The Democratic contender discusses battling greenhouse gases, dealing with China and India, and restoring the EPA from years of Bush ideology.

by Aly Ouattara, IPS News, Northern Côte d'Ivoire - After the peace accord in March 2007, efforts to resolve the long-running political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire appear to be yielding progress.

by Natalie Obiko Pearson & Ian James, Miami Herald, Caracas - President Hugo Chávez's direct monetary help to Latin America is more noticeable than America's, despite the fact that the total U.S. aid to the region is bigger.

by Isabel Kershner, International Herald Tribune, France - These once austere communes of pioneers who drained the swamps and lived according to the Marxist axiom, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" are undergoing a process of privatization, though kibbutz officials prefer a more euphemistic term: renewal.

by Barbara Hardinghaus, Spiegel International, Germany - A European dream ends with kidnapping and prison.

by Elizabeth C. Economy, Foreign Affairs, USA - China's environmental woes are mounting and improving the environment will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms.

by Rosemary Righter, The Times, UK - Vietnam, even today, is a powerful political toxin. Probably the only American politician who can talk about Vietnam without risk is the war hero John McCain.