by Hannah Strange, Times Online, UK - Years after “the femicides” stopped officially, the streets of Ciudad Juárez — already the centre of the drug war in Mexico — are once again consuming women. This time nobody is talking about it.

By Abigail Hauslohner, Khan Younis, Gaza, Time, USA - Mohammed al-Ghiez sets his laptop on the concrete rooftop of a school in the central Gaza strip. As he turns up the music-a blend of American hip-hop, techno and Palestinian rap-the rest of his B-boy crew starts warming up by jumping rope.

by Sokari Ekine, New Internationalist Blog, UK - The story of the shack dwellers' struggle dates back to the pre-apartheid period, when there was a policy to remove the urban informal settlements from city centres to allow for gentrification of the areas.

by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, USA - We speak to New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg about the latest in his investigative series "Toxic Waters," which examines the worsening pollution in the nation's water systems.

by Ann Jones, The Nation, USA - Gen. Stanley McChrystal says he needs more American troops to salvage something link winning in Afghanistan and restore the country to "normal life."

by Dina Cappiello, Huffington Post, USA - Despite mounting scientific evidence of climate change, the number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence the Earth is warming because of pollution is at its lowest point in three years. Researchers suggest that politics and economics could be drowning out scientific awareness.

Naomi Chazan, Jerusalem Post, Israel - The goal of creating a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel is far from dead. Despite the seemingly interminable (and to date unsuccessful) Mitchell-brokered efforts to restart negotiations, the gloating in Netanyahu government circles and the despondency in the peace camp are seriously misplaced.

by Frida Ghitis, Star Tribune, USA - In Afghanistan: As U.S. leaders consider their next steps, may they fully weigh the consequences of Taliban rule.

by Helda Martinez, IPS News, Italy - Sexual violence is used as a weapon of war in Colombia by all parties in the country’s longstanding armed conflict, and its main victims are women and girls, states a report recently released by Intermón Oxfam, backing up claims made repeatedly by national and international human rights groups.

by Tshering Palden and Rinzin Wangchuk, Druk Phuensum Tshongpa, Bhutan - Villagers of one of the worst hit gewogs in Mongar draw strength and inspiration from His Majesty’s visit.

by Hayam El Hadi, Magharebia, USA - Creating the perfect bridal trousseau is a time-honoured ritual in Algeria and involves all the women in the family. Despite the cost, mothers feel compelled to gather as much as they can, from bed linens to apparel, to give their daughters the best start in married life.

by Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Gulf News, United Arab Emirates - Filmmaking is never easy, but the struggle will be much harder if you are a woman, was the popular opinion aired by panellists at the MEIFF discussions on Sunday.

by Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune, USA - The moment it became clear that I was on the verge of a full-blown case of the disease, I was gazing at an ATM keypad. Was it the relentless media coverage of H1N1? Was it those TV commercials that make germs look like hairy rodents?

by Reem Leila, Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, Egypt - The grand sheikh of Al-Azhar stirred troubled waters when he told an 11-year-old pupil at a girls-only school that there was no need for her to cover her face

by Gaelle Faure, TIME, USA - Plagiarism-detection software was created with lazy, sneaky college students in mind — not the likes of William Shakespeare.

by Effa Tambenkongho, Cameroon Tribune, Cameroon - A two-day seminar was organised at Sky Bonapriso to address the difficulties women face in the media.

by Sokari Ekine, The New Internationalist Blog, UK - Workers in the DRC are being exploited in the mining of cassiterite, a vital component in laptops and mobile phones.

by Anne Applebaum, Slate, USA - There is little sense of Afghanistan as being an international operation.

by Patrice de Beer, openDemocracy, UK - Nicolas Sarkozy’s accumulation of power and personalisation of politics leave him exposed when things go wrong.

by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, The Nation, USA - Typically advocates of marriage equality try to reassure the voting public the same-sex marriage will not change the institution itself. This is a pragmatic, political strategy, but I hope it is not true. I hope same-sex marriage changes marriage itself.

by Laura Wides-Munoz, Latinamerican Post, USA - Wise Latina. The catchphrase of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearings has taken on a life of its own, spawning T-shirts, note cards, dog jerseys and even thongs.

by Pauline Chiou, CNN, USA

by Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, UK - About 70,000 women die every year and many more suffer harm as a result of unsafe abortions in countries with restrictive laws on ending a pregnancy, according to a report.