by Heather Murdock, VOA News, USA - Last year, a study commissioned by Oxfam showed that incidents of domestic rape grew 17-fold between 2004 and 2008.

by Susan Marie, Asia Times, Hong Kong - On May 31, 2011, Saleem Shahzad was found dead. Syed Saleem Shahzad went missing on Sunday, after he left his home in the capital to take part in a talk show, but never arrived. He disappeared two days after writing an investigative report in Asia Times Online that Al-Qaeda carried out last month's attack on a naval air base to avenge the arrest of naval officials arrested on suspicion of al-Qaeda links.

by Seyla Benhabib, Eurozine, Vienna - What has emerged in the Arab world is a thoroughly modern mass democratic movement. Speculations that Islamic fundamentalists will hijack the transformation process are motivated by a cultural prejudice that forgets the contentiousness at the historical core of western democracies.

by Svenja Pelzel, Deutsche Welle, Germany - With the German government's phaseout of nuclear energy, renewable sources like wind power are expected to fill the void. But new power lines are desperately needed to keep up with demand, and no one wants them around.

by Elizabeth Sheehy, Vancouver Sun, Canada - Think about it: If men and women in their relationships honestly give permission for such conduct, then the criminal courts will never hear about it. Who will report it?

by Avirama Golan, Ha'aretz, Israel - On the face of it, compared with many European countries where the financial crisis hit hard, Israel's situation is wonderful, however, the a reality of inequality persists.

by Barbara Kay, National Post, Canada - In academia, for ideological reasons, there have always been, and continue to be, areas where "the real world" makes an uncomfortable fit with sacred myths based in theory, not evidence. One such theory is that in domestic violence -or "intimate partner violence (IPV)," as it is now called -women always are either passive victims of male aggression or violent only in self-defence.

by Susana Segovia, Tierramérica, Italy - In the heart of the southern Patagonia region, in the valleys of the Ñadis River, 45 kilometers south of the town of Cochrane, live 14 families who will have to be relocated because the construction of the Baker 2 hydroelectric dam, one of the five planned by the HidroAysén consortium, will leave the entire area underwater.

by Monica Mark, The Africa Report, France - Life has been turned upside down in the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, but its artists, writers and musicians are using their talents to soothe, unify and rebuild



by Sarah M. Brooks, Consultancy Africa Intelligence, South Africa - The small-scale Chinese entrepreneurs who have followed - and occasionally preceded - the SOEs have also been criticised for their increasing presence in all corners of the continent. Instead of being antagonists, can they also be sources of productive cultural exchange, or potential drivers of local economic growth?

by Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The mutilation and death in custody of a 13-year-old child has sparked further furious protests in Syrian city of Daraa.

by Emma Bonino, Deccan Chronicle, India - Diversity is now considered a threat. The signs are plain to see: a propagation of intolerance and fanaticism, growing support for populist and xenophobic parties, an ever more massive presence of immigrants without status or rights, ‘parallel’ communities that do not interact with the rest of society, the repression of individual freedoms, and democracies in crisis.

by Judith Warner, Time, USA - For French women, this could be the end of an era in which talking too forcefully about inequities between men and women has been rejected as too old-school, too angry, too American.

by Bina Shah, Dawn, Pakistan - The bill, Dr Effendi says, doesn’t properly legislate to control the purchase of acid or any other corrosive substance, which is still easily available at any chemist or compounder’s store (it only recommends that provincial assemblies crack down on the buying and selling of acid). Also, it focuses explicitly on the criminal, not the victim, providing no compensation for the victim of an acid attack.

by Clea Caulcutt, RFI, France - In France, the Paris authorities are pushing to improve access for disabled people to nightclubs and bars from which they are often excluded. Last week, volunteers searched the town for nightclubs and bars accessible for disabled clients. Paris was rated 17th in a recent survey on accessibility in France, far behind towns like Nantes and Grenoble.

by Ariella Cohen, The Lens, USA - Years after FEMA moved Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims out of formaldehyde and mold-infested trailers, the very same government-issue dwellings are once again sheltering disaster victims.

by Anes Alic, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - It would be interesting to see a list of those individuals and institutions that helped him evade arrest for 16 years. So far, the results of that investigation have shown that Mladic enjoyed the protection of certain elements of the Serbian security services, the army, and politicians.

by Portia Crowe, IPS, Italy - Thousands of people worldwide raised glasses in a toast to freedom over the weekend to celebrate Amnesty International's 50th anniversary.

by Janet Bagnall, The Gazette, Canada - "It is very difficult to foresee these crises...Men don't consult when they are in distress."

by Heather McRobie and Sadzida Tulic, OpenDemocracy, UK - Poisonous ethno-nationalist political rhetoric, genocide denial and the celebration of war-time leaders are still routinely permitted in the discourse of Bosnian politicians, the media and citizens – if ‘citizens’ is the right word to describe the Bosnians who live in this protectorate-state purgatory.

by Dr. Paula J. Caplan, Psychology Today, USA - No matter what your politics in general, and no matter how you feel about war in general or about particular wars, it's the American government that sends a small percentage of our citizens to war, and 99% of us haven't a clue what they went through - or for current servicemembers, what they are going through right this moment, as we have the choice to avoid thinking about the horrors of war.

by Setsuko Kamiya, Japan Times, Japan - "While we have someone to cast our anger at, people in Tohoku, they lost their families and homes but don't have anyone to blame because it's an act of nature...It may sound a bit strange coming from me, but I really feel sorry for them."

by Zoe Graham, CMFD, South Africa - The continuing effects of landmines in Mozambique told through the stories of four landmine victims: Celso, a 10 year old boy who stepped on a land mine two years ago; Augusto, a 72 year old man who has been left to fend for himself for the last 32 years and Rosa and Helena, who lost both legs and are both single mothers struggling to provide for their children.