by Flávia Resende, Comunidad Segura, Brazil - In the month of June, 70 detainees celebrated the six year anniversary of a new Social Reintegration Center in the city of Nova Lima, in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state.

by Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn, Pakistan - India-Pakistan relations do not move in a straight line. They zigzag from crisis to crisis.

by Yvonne Liu, RaceWire, USA - The green jobs act establishes a Navajo Green Economy Commission and Fund, which can apply for federal and local funds to create green jobs for Navajo youth, as well as sponsor small-scale, green developments that will help to provide needed services to the community.

by Cynthia Johnston, Reuters, UK - Egypt has stepped up shootings of African migrants trying to slip across its border into Israel in a sign that shifts in migration elsewhere in Africa may be pushing more migrants to brave the trek to the Jewish state.

by Constanza Vieira, IPS, Italy - "Colombia’s indigenous people find themselves in a serious, critical and profoundly worrying human rights situation," says the preliminary report by United Nations special rapporteur James Anaya, who just completed a visit to this country.

by Katherine Butler, Independent, UK - "This kind of thing is going on all the time in Sudan for young women who are weak and unable to stand up for their rights...It is a means of harassing them and limiting their place in public life by treating them as if they should be ashamed of themselves."

by Ann Neumann, Religion Dispatches, USA - As they muster their forces against health care reform, Republicans culture warriors and conservative media outlets stir fear of “deadly doctors” and "government-encouraged euthanasia".

by Helene Zuber, Spiegel, Germany - The ongoing economic crisis has pummelled Spain. Small businesses feel abandoned by the government, layoffs are swelling the ranks of the desperate, and a whole generation of recent college graduates is facing a future without prospects.

by Marijke Peters, Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - Although the military coup has been criticised by the world’s superpowers, a group of Dutch nationals living in Honduras have raised eyebrows by claiming it was perfectly legal.

by Nisreen El-Shamayleh, Al Jazeera, Qatar - With the help of African Union peace keepers, government troops are battling al-Shabab and other armed groups. Civilians in the area say the fighting has turned their lives into a "living hell".

by Sharmeen Gangat, Women's Media Center, USA - For reform to work, it must fully include immigrant communities, whose members already struggle to afford decent medical care in the United States.

by Kim Davis, Vancouver Sun, Canada - From the Victory gardens of the last century's two world wars to the community-garden movement started in the 1970s, urban agriculture has played an important role in the security of the food supply.

by Beril Dedeoglu, Today's Zaman, Turkey - Turkey plays a critical role in every effort concerning Syria's new position in the new global balance of power, and consequently, it plays an important role in determining this country's future.

by Mariana Llamas-Cendon, Latina Lista, USA - The city of Manzanillo, the main tourist destination of the Mexican state of Colima, houses a very unusual attraction. Something a visitor or a resident would never expect to see in a beach resort -- The Museum of Perversity: A Historic Look at Human Rights.

by Lynley Donnelly, Mail & Guardian, South Africa - Can owning a cellphone make a bag of grain cheaper for a poor consumer or mitigate the impact of a food crisis on a country?

by Nadia Al-Sakkaf, Yemen Times, Yemen - Strong spirited campaigns to promote women’s advancement and to reform the image of Islam, especially from the Muslim women’s perspective, overwhelmed the participants at the second Women Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) conference.

by Josie Ensor, Daily Star, Lebanon - There are an estimated 50,000 Iraqi refugees in Lebanon, of which only 8,476 are registered with UNHCR, according to the latest Arab Human Development Report. Nearly 1,800 of these refugees are Iraqi children, most of whom are unlikely to attend school, forced to work by their parents.

by Kari Lydersen, Washington Post, USA - The lush, rolling contours of the Great Smoky Mountains are Tennessee's pride and joy, and a major source of tourism revenue.

by Amrita Nandy-Joshi, Tehelka, India - 50-year-old Hisila Yami alias Comrade Parvati, Nepal’s most powerful woman Maoist leader, dispells the myth that Maoist guerillas are bellicose and unkempt.

by Clea Caulcutt, France 24, France - Executives and engineers at a Nortel France plant near Paris are taking their cue from disgruntled French auto parts workers who, earlier this week, threatened to commit acts of violence to highlight their plight.

by Naomi Chazan, Haaretz, Israel - Israel human rights activists are prompted by motives that diverge dramatically from those ascribed to them by their detractors.

by Liz Jones, Daily Mail, UK - Isn't it time they all tried a little bit harder to be on our side, to help us through the mire of recession rather than trying to brainwash us into buying ever more stuff we didn't know we needed in the first place?