by Christina Lamb, Dean Nelson & Ghulam Hasnain, The Times, UK - Bhutto’s 19-year-old son Bilawal will be thrust into a dangerous spotlight today as Pakistan’s most powerful political dynasty prepares to pass the baton to the next generation.

by Lourdes Heredia, BBC Mundo - Six years of neglect, USA currently has little influence in most of Latin America.

by Jennifer Schuett & Wayne Smith, Center for International Policy, USA - After the Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress, many expected rapid progress toward a new Cuba policy.

by Teresita C. Schaffer, Washington Post, USA- I first met her in 1974, when she was a slightly impish 21-year-old home from Oxford on summer vacation.

by Mona Eltahawy, International Herald Tribune, Germany - For me as a young Muslim woman, Benazir Bhutto's political career was especially captivating. She was the first woman prime minister in the Muslim world when she was elected in 1988, at the age of 35.

by Anne E. Kornblut & Shailagh Murray, The Washington Post, USA - Clinton described Bhutto in terms Obama could not: as a fellow mother, a pioneering woman following in a man's footsteps, and a longtime peer on the world stage.

by Emily Douglas, RH Reality Check, USA - We need to start an honest discussion around sex and sexuality and how pregnancy is both planned and how it is prevented.

by Jane Perlez and Victoria Burnett, New York Times, USA - A woman of grand ambitions with a taste for complex political maneuvering, Ms. Bhutto was first elected prime minister in 1988 at the age of 35.

by Hélène Mulholland & Allegra Stratton, The Guardian, UK - Bhutto's death comes at the height of a parliamentary election campaign following eight years of military rule under President Pervez Musharraf that ended with his resignation from the army.

by Benazir Bhutto, Christian Science Monitor, USA - Dictatorship fuels extremism, which reaches far beyond Pakistan.

by Lisa Clifford & Charles Ntiricya, IWPR, DRC - Epidemic of brutal sexual violence plagues the region where women are being raped with impunity.

by Kwamboka Oyaro, IPS News, Kenya - NGOs have assisted female candidates ahead of Kenya's general elections on the 27th in the hope of giving them a fair shot at the polls.

by Susan Page, USA Today, USA - Never in modern times have the nominations in both parties been so up for grabs at the beginning of an election year.

by Yasemin Sim Esmen, Turkish Daily News, Turkey - The enormous progress Turkey has made, was in the lifetime of a single individual. And I do not think any other country can say that except South Korea?

by Celestine Bohlen, International Herald Tribune, France - Muammar el-Qaddafi, a one-time international pariah, thumbed his nose at his French hosts, accusing them of violating women's rights and treating African immigrants poorly.

by Claire Berlinski, Globe and Mail, Canada - May everyone who writes about Pamuk, and indeed, everyone who writes about Istanbul, to retire forever the phrase "caught between East and West"?

by Neena Gopal, Outlook India, India - Ms. Bhutto refutes National Security Advisor Narayanan's recent comments questioning her track record as Pakistan's PM.

by Meen Vaidya Malla, Telegraph, Nepal - Media, the voice of the voiceless, is a powerful tool to enable the people, specially the marginalized section of public, such as the women who are socialized so far under the culture of silence

by Flavia Krause-Jackson, Bloomberg - The Pope mentioned Darfur, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea and Ethiopia, "the entire Middle East, in particular Iraq, Lebanon and the Holy Land, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the Balkan region and so many, many other crisis areas that too often are forgotten.'' He didn't specifically cite Myanmar.

by Urmil, Future Of Women In India - Globalization has provided opportunities for the educated, middle class woman to build her own dreams and excel in fields, which were earlier perceived as complete male domains.

by Inés Benítez, IPS News, Guatemala - "Before, we didn't know how to market the coffee, or who would buy it in other countries, all we knew about was planting and harvesting," says Guatemalan coffee grower Pablo Pérez.

Interview with Rosalí Nunes, Guardian Weekly - Rosalí has allready outlived most of her friends. At 26, she has become the third person from her favela to graduate.

by Jeanette Winterson, The New Statesman, UK - It's no wonder that the Christmas message of Peace and Goodwill to All Men has so many animals in the picture; they are better at it than us.

by Marion Kraske, Spiegel International, Germany - From an archaeological point of view, Bulgaria has some of the richest digs around. The problem is, plunderers are aware of the valuable treasure as well.

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR, USA - With violence down to the lowest levels since 2005, Iraqis are enjoying the holiday season out in the open. Popular marketplaces in Baghdad are jammed with shoppers.

Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han, FRA, Hong Kong - According to the propaganda department, there are 21 bans: no stories on unemployment, no stories on the upsurge of migrant workers…Radio stations are not allowed to report on workers’ strikes in foreign countries.