by Nicole Pope, Today's Zaman, Turkey - The shock waves caused by the Swiss decision to ban minarets show no sign of abating.

by Rebecca Collard, The National, United Arab Emirates - About 160 million people now depend on water from the Nile and its tributaries – and that number could double by 2025, spreading even thinner the already contested Nile waters and pushing about half the basin countries into water scarcity.

by Lizzy Davies, Guardian, UK - Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right party has put forward legislation that would see women make up half the figures in France's leading boardrooms by 2015, under a bold plan to impose gender equality on the male-dominated business world.

by Joanna Lillis, Eurasianet, USA - Energy-rich Kazakhstan has been a magnet for Central Asian migrant workers for much of the last decade. For some the dream turns into a nightmare of shakedowns by police, stolen wages, poor conditions and, in the worst cases, modern-day slavery.

by Tamar Sharabi, Upside Down World, Canada - An interview with a women's rights leader before the 'free' election.

by Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn, Pakistan - Many Pakistani women are paying with their health — and even their lives — to avoid births they cannot afford or do not want.

by Nomi Prins, The Daily Beast, USA - Wall Street’s big banks are playing dangerous new accounting games—and this time taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of billions.

by Christine Toomey, Times Online, UK - In the Ecuadorean Amazon basin our thirst for oil has triggered an eco-disaster: wholesale pollution and catastrophic cancer rates. And a bloody turf war has broken out. Ecuador is taking a survival plan to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. But will western governments listen?

by Malayapinas, World Pulse, USA - Under the Arroyo government, violence has worsened as more military forces have become involved in the lawlessness and culture of impunity that reigns all over the island.

by Marijke Peters, Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - Amsterdam and prostitution have been bedfellows for a long time and the city’s red light district attracts thousands of tourists, who come to take advantages of the liberal laws.

by Nina Lakhani, The Independent, UK - Twenty-five years on, the world's worst industrial accident continues to kill and blight many lives. And still there's been no trial.

by Marcela Valente, IPS, Italy - Touted as "harvested forests," single-crop tree plantations are fast encroaching on the native forests and grasslands of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, affecting the environment and the lives of local communities, rural women say.

by Malalai Joya, Guardian, UK - If Barack Obama heralds an escalation of the war, he will betray his own message of hope and deepen my people's pain.

by Lindsay Beyerstein, In These Times, Canada - Last week in the Phillipines, dozens of politicians and journalists were dragged from a campaign convoy by about 100 armed men.

by Heather Maher, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad left no doubt about Iran's ambitions. "We need to spread out to numerous sites to produce nuclear fuel for us. We shall build 10 new uranium enrichment plants," he said on state television on November 29.

by Anna Husarska, Open Democracy, UK - In Bhutan, a Himalayan country famed for its focus on Gross National Happiness, the Nepalese minority has been forced out. Anna Husarska traveled to their refugee camps to document their plight.

by Mona Eltahawy, Washington Post, USA - My question for Switzerland and other European countries enthralled by the right wing: When did Saudi Arabia become your role model?

by Louise Brown, Toronto Star, Canada - They are Europe's Least Wanted – reviled for their unorthodox ways, hounded by white supremacists.

by Linda Bishai, History News Network, USA- Although much has been made publicly about the violations of human rights of Darfurians, one key right - their ability to shape their own political future – has been missing.

by Ariadne Massa, Times of Malta, Malta - Malta is burying its head in the sand on sexual health, according to a World Health Organisation adviser who is concerned about soaring teenage pregnancies and the lack of proper sex education.

by Nisreen El-Shamayleh, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Jordan has stood at the front-line of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948, and in the six decades since has been de-mining battlefields where opposing armies once roamed.