by Emily Lau, openDemocracy, UK - The Amnesty reports find that Chinese people who peacefully exercised rights such as freedom of expression and association remain at high risk of a number of repressive measures: enforced disappearance, illegal and incommunicado detention, house-arrest, surveillance, and beatings and harassment from both government officials and unidentified assailants. They estimate that about half a million people are subjected to punitive detention without charge or trial. Moreover, the targeting of human-rights defenders who raise politically sensitive issues is also increasing: the authorities seek to criminalise their activities by charging them with offences such as damaging public property, extortion and fraud.

by Ferda Ataman and Jürgen Gottschlich, Spiegel Online, Germany - Turkey's highest court in Ankara ruled on Thursday that a law passed by Erdogan's government easing the ban on headscarves at universities was unconstitutional. The ruling is a precursor to a dramatic confrontation likely to emerge in the coming months between Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AKP party and the country's secularist forces, led by the powerful military.

by Miren Gutierrez, IPS News, Italy - Observe any summit picture -- you won't find many women. The mystery of female underrepresentation in the echelons of power persists: after so many decades of the feminist movement, why are women at the helm scarce? A look at the media sector may provide some answers.

by Elva Ramirez, Wall Street Journal, USA - Western fashion often draws from other cultures – as evidenced by batik shirts, sarong skirts or the prevalence of plaid. But when Rachael Ray appeared in a Dunkin' Donuts ad wearing a black-and-white paisley scarf last week, conservatives accused her of donning a keffiyeh, the traditional headdress for Arabic men, and of supporting extremists. Dunkin' Donuts quickly pulled the ad. What seemed like A simple style choice suddenly ignited a long-simmering debate about the politics of clothing and the power of contex

by Elisabeth Rosenthal and Andrew Martin, International Herald Tribune, France - It was supposed to be an emergency conference on food shortages, climate change and energy. But when the microphone was opened to the powerful politicians who had flown in from all over the world, they spoke mostly about economics and politics.

by Bonnie Hulkower, treehugger, USA - One of the biggest challenges in transforming the world towards a low carbon economy is the vested interests of some corporate players. You only have to look at the humble light bulb. The old, massively energy inefficient bulb dates back almost two centuries. Suddenly, the compact fluorescent bulb is all the rage, and suddenly large corporations are switching production to the energy saving ones—it is about taking the lids off the eyes and catalyzing momentum.

by Susanne Koelbl and Ullrich Fichtner, Spiegel Online, Germany - President Hamid Karzai has come under fire for not doing enough to stem corruption in Afghanistan. He speaks to SPIEGEL about the coalition forces' ties with warlords, rumors about his family's influence and why he believes dirty deals are sometimes necessary.

by Gerd von der Lippe, Eurozine, Austria - You need balls to play football. So it is obvious that being a girl just won't do as far as the guys are concerned, says Gerd von der Lippe in a devastating critique of the state of affairs in the reporting and support of women's football in Norway.

by Maya Schenwar, truthout, USA - The Department of Defense (DOD) now employs contractors to keep contractors in check in Iraq, under a new framework for war industry management solidified last month.

by DeNeen L. Brown, Washington Post, USA - Black president. Two words profound and yet contradictory. Once thought of as an oxymoron, impossible to be placed together in the same sentence, context, country -- unless followed by a question mark. Black president? This century?

by Gulnoza Saidazimova, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - "Women have to be more careful, since they possess stimulants," and they "have to be covered properly so as not to show their ornaments and figures to strangers." Those are two of the controversial "dos" and "don'ts" given to Turkish women in the "Sexual Life" article that appeared last week on the website of Turkey's Directorate on Religious Affairs, the Diyanet.

by Badea Abu Al-Naja and Siraj Wahab, Arab News, Saudi Arabia - Muslim religious scholars, media personalities, academics and intellectuals from around the globe have arrived in the Holy City of Makkah for a three-day interfaith dialogue that begins today at the request of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. The king is to open the first session this morning with a speech that will outline the parameters of discussion Muslims should be having with people of other faiths.

by Michelle Tsai, Slate Magazine, USA - The Italian government called in the army on Tuesday to clean up the mounting piles of waste in the city of Naples. Residents blame the authorities for not doing more to stop the Camorra, the region's Mafia group, which controls garbage collection and has caused the city's constant waste problem for more than a decade. Organized crime appears to have a hand in trash collection all over the world, from Naples to Tony Soprano's northern New Jersey. Why are gangsters always hauling garbage?

by Anne Applebaum, Slate Magazine, USA - With an unerring sense of timing, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe arrived in Rome this weekend, thereby demonstrating the profound limitations of international diplomacy. Indeed, it's hard to think of any other single gesture that would so effectively reveal the ineffectiveness of international institutions in the conduct of both human rights and food-aid policy. Even someone standing atop the dome of St. Peter's, megaphone in hand, shouting, "The U.N. is useless! The EU is useless!" couldn't have clarified the matter more plainly.

by Renee Maltezou and George Hatzidakis, Reuters, Greece - Greece's first gay weddings were held on Tuesday when two couples, abetted by a sympathetic local mayor, defied the threat of criminal charges and the wrath of the Orthodox church to tie the knot on a tiny Aegean island. One gay and one lesbian couple took advantage of the failure of Greek civil law to specify gender in matrimony and took vows at municipal offices on the southeast Aegean island of Tilos.

by Susanne Scholl, The Daily Star, Lebanon - In Russia, if you have dark hair and a slightly swarthy complexion, you are likely to be in danger. Sadly, Russia's leaders have tolerated, if not encouraged, fear of foreigners and assaults on those whose appearance differs from the average Russian.

by Celia W. Dugger, International Herald Tribune, France - The good news on AIDS: Nearly a million people began life-prolonging drug treatment in developing countries last year. The bad news: 2.5 million people were newly infected with the HIV virus. As new infections continue to far outstrip efforts to treat the sick, the United Nations released a progress report Monday that highlighted both the notable gains in combating the AIDS epidemic and the daunting scale of what remains to be done.

by Naomi Klein, Rolling Stone, USA - Thirty years ago, the city of Shenzhen didn't exist. Back in those days, it was a string of small fishing villages and collectively run rice paddies, a place of rutted dirt roads and traditional temples. That was before the Communist Party chose it — thanks to its location close to Hong Kong's port — to be China's first "special economic zone," one of only four areas where capitalism would be permitted on a trial basis. The theory behind the experiment was that the "real" China would keep its socialist soul intact while profiting from the private-sector jobs and industrial development created in Shenzhen. The result was a city of pure commerce, undiluted by history or rooted culture — the crack cocaine of capitalism.

by Alissa J. Rubin, International Herald Tribune, France - Once a byword for torture and disgrace, the American-run detention system in Iraq has improved, even critics say, as the military has incorporated it into a larger counterinsurgency strategy that seeks to avoid mistreatment that could create new enemies. But the gains may soon be at risk.

by Rosalind Eyben, openDemocracy, UK - Today, although the argument for equality based on justice and fairness is not entirely neglected, the last few years have seen a strong shift back to the arguments of the early 1980s. This trend is indicative of a wider movement in development policies away from the visions of global social justice articulated at the great United Nations conferences of the 1990s towards a revival of the idea of the centrality of market-led growth as the engine of development.

by Rana Foroohar, Newsweek, USA - This spring, America hit a historic point. With average gas prices per gallon edging toward $4, America's notoriously profligate ways started to change fast. Americans are driving less, using mass transit more, buying fewer gas guzzlers, indeed shopping less wantonly in general, and lowering their previously unshakable confidence as consumers. Suddenly, Americans are acting differently; if not exactly like Swedes, then not quite like themselves, either. It's a shift that could change the world.

by Katy Glassborow and Taylor Toeka Kakala, IWPR, The Netherlands and DR Congo - International Criminal Court, ICC, prosecutors have dropped all sexual violence charges in relation to conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, because of an internal dispute over witness protection. Prosecutors removed counts of sexual slavery from the indictments against militia leaders Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo following disagreements with the court’s registry over how to protect two witnesses whose testimonies could have backed up the charges.

by Aileen Kwa, IPS News, Italy - Metals and mineral mining have been notorious for the "resource curse" they have inflicted on the communities who live where they are mined. Today, as prices are high, the appetites of these mining companies are on the increase.