by Carolynne Wheeler, Telegraph, UK - In a macho political culture that has not anointed a female head of state since the 1969 election of Golda Meir - the original "Iron Lady" before Margaret Thatcher - Ms Livni is under pressure to prove that she can be as tough as, if not tougher than, any of her male rivals.

by Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe, USA - When men are downsized, outsourced, and discouraged, we say they're unemployed. But when women get pushed out of the economy, we like to say they "opted out."

by Rebecca Clarren, Orion Magazine, USA - Immigrants in California's Central Valley are sick of breathing poisoned air.

by Mohau Pheko, The Times, South Africa - Why is Africa the only continent targeted by the ICC, yet there are war criminals in the West who still enjoy their freedom and continue to create atrocities in Iraq and other parts of the world?

by Mary Finley-Brook, North American Congress on Latin America, USA - Daniel Ortega’s successful bid for Nicaragua’s presidency last year received enthusiastic support from one of his party’s long-time foes: indigenous groups from the Atlantic coast.

by Marie Valla, France 24, France - After years of tense relations, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast signaled reconciliation with a three-day visit by Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo in Ouagadougou. Gbagbo vowed to make the two countries the 'backbone' of West Africa.

by Patti Chong, WA Today, Australia - It is important that we recognise and respect that indigenous Australians are the traditional land owners with hundreds of years of customary laws which are still practised in some communities.

by Damilola Oyedele, This Day Online, Nigeria - When the Federal Capital Territory was conceived, the policy was to resettle the indigenes or pay compensation to those affected by the development. However, along the line subsequent governments did not execute this policy. Added to this, is the insincerity on the part of the people.

by Maryam Ismail, Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates - When it comes to NGOs, you have to be careful who you take your bag of rice from.

by Shulamit Aloni, Haaretz, Israel - If the secular parties - Labor, Likud, Kadima and the rest - jointly set boundaries and agreed that none would pay any more bribes to the ultra-Orthodox parties in exchange for political support, the harm to education, agriculture and women would stop.

by Raekha Prasad, Guardian, UK - The ads are brazen: 'healthy young women - superovulated exclusively for you!'. The fees are half those of UK clinics ('flights and hotel included!'). And the industry is unregulated, leaving doctors free of legal and ethical constraints.

by Patricia Grogg, Inter Press Service, Italy - Urban farming has taken off in Cuba over the last two decades, based on low-cost agro-ecological practices and a stable labour force, and could serve as a model for the rest of the agriculture sector in this period of reforms.

by Masha Lipman, St. Petersburg Times, Russia - The Russian Orthodox Church called on government authorities this month to condemn the Soviet communist regime. It’s odd that the church should think about this now.

by Cindy Sui, Asia Times, China - With a little more than a week to go before China plays host to its biggest ever international event, the Chinese government is leaving nothing to chance.

by Sabria S. Jawhar, Saudi Gazette, Saudi Arabia - One of greatest joys and probably the most important decision for potential students is the opportunity to study abroad. But for many women the opportunity just isn’t there.

by Anne Applebaum, Washington Post, USA - Between the sinking U.S. housing market and the soaring price of food, the high price of fuel and low rate of growth, the new president is going to have so much on his plate that if such a group of Europeans crossed the Atlantic and announced, say, a plan to fix southern Afghanistan, they would be welcomed with open arms.

by Connie Veneracion, Philippine News, Philippines - Nothing is more ridiculous than the claim that birth control is the equivalent of voluntary genocide, a statement made by a consultant of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on the Family in a local news and public affairs program on television.

by Frances Gibb, Times Online, UK - The traditional crime of passion is to be swept away in the most radical overhaul of the murder laws in 50 years.

by Gia Linh, VietnamNet Bridge, Vietnnam - Trung, 14, often wakes up at 4am to go to a “newspaper market” in front of Tran Quy Cap railway station, Hanoi, with his mother to receive newspapers.

by Marjorie Cohn, Media With Conscience News, USA - Conspicuously absent from the national discourse is a political analysis of why the tragedy of 9/11 occurred and a comprehensive strategy to overhaul U.S. foreign policy to inoculate us from the wrath of those who despise American imperialism.

by Rania Al Malky, Daily News Egypt, Egypt - Patriotism has become an issue of ‘national security’ and if you are caught in the act of expressing your love for your country anywhere along the sprawling Egyptian coastline, and what’s worse, if you happen to be carrying the Egyptian flag as you chant the forbidden lyrics of ‘traitors’ like Ahmed Fouad Negm, and Sayed Darwish, you will simply be asking for it.

by Olivia Ward, The Star, Canada - From Osama to Radovan, the global public is on first-name terms with many of the usual suspects wanted for appalling international crimes.

by Lyndall Stein, openDemocracy, UK - A hard corner of southern Ethiopia is a place where the multiple causes of the global food crisis converge. Here, in Wolayita, people are on the edge of life for want of food and the resources to access it.

by Aunohita Mojumdar, Asia Times, China - The Karzai government and its allies must make greater efforts, through word and deed, to address sources of alienation exploited in Taliban propaganda, particularly by ending arbitrary detentions and curtailing civilian casualties from aerial bombing.

by Maya Schenwar, Truthout, USA - A new book from Foreign Policy in Focus explains what made the Iraq war possible, and how we can stop the factors that precipitated it before they breed.

by Fatma Disli, News Time 7, Turkey - Closing down the AK Party may result in a disaster. While trying to protect the secular order, we may lose both secularism and democracy.

by Tamara Scott-Williams, The Jamaica Observer, Jamaica - Look at the pictures of opposition workers, of men, women and children who were singled out by members of a government army patrol and youth militia and beaten, battered, burnt and tortured, and then tell me that any action taken against Robert Mugabe would be an "extreme measure".