by Jan A. Botha, Mail & Guardian, South Africa - Roughly once a month Esta van Heerden's team of researchers exchange their white lab coats for mining overalls and hard hats to go bioprospecting.

by Julianne Ong Hing, Color Lines, USA - Sixty-five percent of Sikh students in Queens, New York, experience some kind of racial intimidation or bullying, ranging from verbal assaults to physical violence, according to a study released by the Sikh Coalition in 2007.

by Yonca Poyraz Dogan, Today's Zaman, Turkey - We talk about religious revivalism in Turkey and I wonder where it is, because religion is about making people’s lives better. Imams should tell the masses in mosques tens, hundreds and thousands of times that it is a cruel crime to kill women in the name of honor’.

by Marcia G. Yerman, Empowher, USA - An August 2008 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) relates that females accounted for 27 per cent of new HIV infections in 2006. In a breakdown along age lines, the study showed that the 13-39 demographic had 9,130 of the 14,410 new infections; women 40-49 comprised 3,640; women 50 plus made up the remainder at 1,640.

by Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune, France - Call it the death of the "It" bag or the decline of capitalism — either way there has been a dramatic change in the business of luxury.

by Dilnaz Boga, Counter Currents, India - India’s North Eastern state of Manipur is paying a high price for its proximity to the notorious Golden Triangle. A population of 2.4 million grapples with HIV/AIDS that stems out of a heroin addiction problem directly related to local poppy cultivation.

by Mona Eltahawy, Mona Eltahawy, USA - To mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in Washington, DC on March 26, 1979, the Middle East Institute commissioned essays for its project “Legacy of Camp David, 1979-2009″.

by Helen Fawkes, BBC, UK- Every year the Maksic family like to visit the river near their home in southern Serbia. They go to remember 12-year-old Miroslav.

by Jessie Duarte, Mail & Guardian, South Africa - Women understand the problems, but are seldom in the position to change and redirect resources towards solving the problem. When it comes to how services are delivered our voices are sought, but seldom on how to deliver services. This patriarchal mindset needs a sharp challenge.

by Amy Goodman, Truthdig, USA - Twenty years ago, the Exxon Valdez supertanker spilled at least 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s pristine Prince William Sound. The consequences of the spill were epic and continue to this day, impacting the environment and the economy.

by Pilirani Semu-Banda, IPS, Italy - Malawi does not have accurate statistics that define the extent of tuberculosis (TB) cases within its borders, and there are fears that only half of those infected with the disease are able to access testing and treatment.

by Stella Rock, openDemocracy, UK - A well-organised and experienced neo-Nazi network in Russia is committing increasingly violent crimes in Russia, a sobering report reveals. But attempts to prosecute the perpetrators are showing some success.

by Abiose Adelaja, Next, Nigeria - Rape statistics are hard to find in Nigeria because they are under-reported. According to police records, there have been only six reported cases of rape in Lagos this year.

by Elise Potaka, Asia Calling, Indonesia - With around 70 hydropower dams under construction or consideration, Laos is being labeled the “battery of South East Asia”. But critics argue that the government has a poor track record when it comes to mitigating the effects of dams.

by Dima M. Toukan, Daily Star, Lebanon - Sustained and systematic attention to civic education and advocacy skills is paramount. The goal of building a critical mass of politically literate and active citizens who have common concerns and possess the know-how of how to tackle them democratically is still far from realized.

by Lisa Friedman, New York Times, USA - "The word [refugee] is used by environmentalists to push rich countries to do something on climate change, to use this ghost of millions of refugees on rickety boats arriving on the shores of their country. But there are others who say this is backfiring, that it is causing countries to build walls."

by Aurore Cloe Dupuis, France 24, France - Almost 2,400 people were executed last year, human rights group Amnesty International said in its annual report on the death penalty. Despite the figures, Amnesty saw positive signs of a "steady progress towards complete abolition".

by Marlies Hagers, Spiegel, Germany - As education becomes an export product, Dutch universities are increasingly switching to English as the language of instruction -- some say that higher education is suffering as a result.

by Sarah Elliott, BBC, UK

by Chrann Chamroeun and Georgia Wilkins, Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia - Sexual abuse towards children in Cambodia is not only high, it's now growing, officials say.

by Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press, USA - Hawaii's native avian population is in peril, with nearly all the state's birds in danger of becoming extinct, a federal report says.