by Anna Sussman, San Francisco Chronicle, USA - If journalists in war zones must now fear indefinite detention by the U.S. military for routine reporting on an enemy, then there is a fundamental and crucial departure from both the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Conventions in the manner in which the United States is perpetrating the war on terrorism.

by Maggie Airriess, Caribbean Net News, Cayman Islands - US-Brazil tension, a relatively recent development, resurfaced during the UN World Food Summit in Rome on June 3-5, encouraging the booming Brazilian sugar-based ethanol market to increase its new development projects.

by Evelyn Gordon, Jerusalem Post, Israel - Following last Wednesday's swap of live terrorists for dead soldiers, media reports claimed that many Israelis felt cheated: Against all odds, they had expected Hizbullah to return living soldiers, and were outraged to receive mere corpses.

by Mona Eltahawy, Middle East Online, UK - The disturbing trend in the never-ending duel of “Islam v. West”: women as the soft targets of both radical Muslims and secular governments, argues Mona Eltahawy.

by Jennifer Gonnerman, Mother Jones, USA - The number first appeared in headlines earlier this year: Nearly one in four of all prisoners worldwide is incarcerated in America. It was just the latest such statistic. Today, one in nine African American men between the ages of 20 and 34 is locked up.

by Frida Ghitis, World Politics Review, USA - To put it bluntly, Obama's behavior in Israel and during the rest of his trip could determine whether or not Israel decides to attack Iran before the next American president takes office.

by Bouthaina Shaaban, The Daily Star, Lebanon - When you leave the Middle East and land in any Western capital, you feel that you have reached a planet where politics is not the food and drink of the inhabitants.

by Lale Sariibrahimoglu, Today's Zaman, Turkey - If one tank costs an estimated YTL 5 million and the cost of the Bridge of Hearts project is less than a tank, then one can imagine what Turkey could have done and could do if it manages to control the unchecked budget of the Turkish Armed Forces in particular and the budgets of some civilian institutions, such as municipalities, in general.

by Rosebell Kagumire, The Independent, Uganda - Burkitt’s lymphoma was first discovered in Uganda in 1958 and was the first kind of cancer to be identified as treatable. Now, decades down the road, this lymphoma is still a major cause of death and suffering in children.

by Anne Applebaum, Slate, USA - Any child who sticks around in Saudi schools until ninth grade will eventually be taught that "Jews and Christians are enemies of believers." They will also be taught that Jews conspire to "gain sole control of the world," that the Christian crusades never ended, and that on Judgment Day "the rocks or the trees" will call out to Muslims to kill Jews.

by Priya Shetty, SciDev Net, UK - The developing world is facing a deadly new health threat: chronic diseases. Illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease are quickly overtaking infections as the biggest killers of the world's poor.

by Medha Patkar, Assam Times, India - The game of numbers was never at its vulgar ebb as it is today. It is clear by now, more than ever before that electoral politics is nothing more than valueless and opportunistic arithmetic. Votes and candidates, parties and parliamentarians are being traded in the electoral bazaar of India as if politics is a game sans values. It probably is.

by Margreet Strijbosch, Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - Radovan Karadzic's arrest came 13 years after charges, including those of genocide, were brought against him by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

by Anna Smolchenko, The Moscow Times, Russia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave the go-ahead for expanded operations by Russian oil companies and called for an energy alliance with Moscow during an appearance with President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday, but he saved a personal invitation to visit Caracas for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

by Heba Aly, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, USA - Many people in Khartoum refuse to believe the numbers - according to the United Nations, as many as 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced. They cannot comprehend that their government could be responsible for such actions, perhaps because accepting that reality would open doors many prefer to leave untouched.

by Mona Eltahawy, Middle East Online, UK - Does Sri Lanka have bread? Is there fruit in Egypt? Is Barack Obama a radical Muslim? ‘Inquiring’ Americans want to know these things. Sheesh, says Mona Eltahawy.

by Veronica Brown, The Citizen Newspaper, Tanzania - "If you go back and look at the last 6-1/2 years and you ask what's behind the strength of the oil price, I would say it's the same thing that is behind the strength of other things and that was the extremely accommodative US monetary policy," said Simon Derrick, head of FX research at Bank of New York Mellon.

by Fauziah Ibrahim, Al Jazeera, UK - Cambodia is one of the single biggest recipients of foreign aid in the world. However, some critics say the vast flow of development funds has created a culture of dependency.

by Sunrita Sen, Monsters and Critics, USA - Strange things happen in Indian politics. On Sunday, two days after the airport in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow was named after late Charan Singh, a former prime minister, his son Ajit Singh said the three lawmakers with his Rashtriya Lok Dal would vote against the government.

by Amy Alexander, The Nation, USA - "The blogosphere is like the real world in many ways," says Chris Rabb, founder of Afro-Netizen.com, a blog focusing on African-American news, information and activism. "Some of the same obstacles, challenges and inequalities that exist in the real world exist in the blogosphere, too."

by Fiona Forde and Angela Quintal, Sunday Independent, South Africa - Morgan Tsvangirai has agreed to enter power sharing talks with Robert Mugabe, saying Zimbabweans have suffered enough and it is time for that country's crisis to come to an end.

by Audrey Brown, BBC News, UK - Fourteen years after Mr Mandela's new nation was born, the country's newspapers are still filled with stories of snubs and rejections as white establishments blatantly refuse to allow black people in.

by Cindy Sui, Asia Times, China - "China cannot control Taiwan's media, so it can't control Taiwanese people's views of China. But when Chinese tourists come to Taiwan, at least China can show its good side," said Chengchi University's Kou.

by Keya Acharya, Inter Press Service, Italy - "We don’t know how to read or write, but we make our own films,’’ is how Narsamma, 42, a farmer from Pastapur village in Hyderabad, introduces herself and her colleagues.

by Galina Stolyarova, Transitions Online, Czech Republic - When politics is in a comatose condition, more and more people turn to the written word as a substitute for political standoffs, battles, and controversy. Political forecasts are moving into literature.