by Mridu Khullar, The Caravan, India - In the race to modernise before the Commonwealth Games, Delhi’s trashpickers are being left behind.

by Nurit Wurgaft, Haaretz, Israel - The government and the Bank of Israel have a plan to rid the country of illegal migrant workers and put Israelis back to work. Unfortunately, it's based on a number of misleading assumptions.

by Fredreka Schouten, USA Today, USA - The recession has battered the U.S. economy, but the lobbying industry is humming along in the nation's capital, even for companies that have shed thousands of jobs in the past year.

by Lucy Komisar, IPS, Italy - The global bank HSBC may be running offshore accounts for central banks. According to a U.S. Senate investigation, an HSBC subsidiary in London called HSBC Equator Bank had a sister bank in the Bahamas.

by Ayse Karabat, Today's Zaman, Turkey - Turkey's juvenile justice system considers legal cases regarding minors only as ‘files,' but this perception has to be replaced with a system that focuses on the rights of children.

by Mary Dejevsky, The Independent, UK - There is no evidence at all that Iran colluded with al-Qa'ida.

by Anne Seith, Spiegel, Germany - We all gravitate towards people who are like ourselves. It would help a lot if we could make more men become aware of these dynamics. It would also be helpful if women would be aware of it.

by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, The Nation, USA - When gay men and lesbians can openly and proudly point to their sacrifices for our country then they can call upon our country for full first-class citizenship.

by Amy Goodman, Truthdig, USA - “I wish President Obama would listen carefully to Martin Luther King... he ought to think before he sends missiles over Pakistan, before he agrees to this bloated military budget, before he sends troops to Afghanistan, before he opposes the single-payer system."

by Peggy Simpson, Women News Network & Women's Media Center, USA - Able to quickly reach a well-developed network of women throughout the country, an alternative banking system performs while the Haitian economy is in shambles.

by Maude Barlow, On The Commons, USA - If we are to successfully address climate change, it is time to include an analysis of how our abuse of water is an additional factor in the creation of global warming as well as solutions that protect water and watersheds.

by Anne Seith, Spiegel, Germany - Many countries have started to see a rebound from last year's economic recession. But will it last? Economists at the World Economic Forum in Davos warn that paying down massive public debt will be "very, very painful."

by Kristina Gorelik, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - "Zakazukha," the practice of accepting payment to publish articles, is common practice among Russian journalists, and a routine way for local image-makers to slip slavish praise or damning claims about a person or product into the press.

by Kajalie Shehreen Islam, The Star, Bangladesh - Simi, Trisha, Rumi. The stories of girls and women who have been provoked to commit suicide by 'eve-teasers' are common -- even the few which make it to the public eye via the media.

by Sandra Nyaira, VOA, USA - “Tobacco to Zimbabwe was like what probably gold was to South Africa – if Johannesburg was created through the Witvatersrand gold fields then Harare was definitely created by the growing of tobacco.”

by Sahar Sepehri, Mianeh, UK - Iranian women’s groups and other rights organisations are fighting a much discussed proposed law which they say would encourage polygamy by allowing a man to take a second wife without the permission of the first in certain circumstances.

by Zofeen Ebrahim, IPS, Italy - No sooner does a visitor step into the facility than a surreal scene unfolds: The sound of laughter, the sight of ready smiles and vigorous, pumping handshakes mix with the acrid odor of an unwashed human body and the unbearable stench of neglect that in turn combines with the heavy smell of medicine.

by Chrystia Freeland, Financial Times, UK - Canada is the only G7 country to survive the financial crisis without a state bail-out for its financial sector.

by Fatma Disli, Today's Zaman, Turkey - China, which introduced a controversial one-child-per-family policy in 1979 as a measure to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems in the country, has been forcing Uighur mothers in East Turkistan to have abortions despite the fact that ethnic minorities are among the exemptions to this law.

by Paula J. Caplan, Boston Globe, USA - As Americans struggle to keep New Year’s weight-loss resolutions, experts’ alarms about obesity ring in our heads.

by Ruth Gledhill, Times Online, UK - Ambreen Sadiq, a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Bradford, has overcome opposition in her community to win her latest fight and aim for the 2016 Olympics.