by Mya Guarnieri, Al Jazeera, Qatar - A plan to downgrade Arabic's status as an official language underscores broader tensions within Israel.

by Karla Zabludovsky, Guardian, UK - The casino attack has set a damning new precedent in Mexico. Cartels will play dirtier than ever as a bid for dominance in an escalating retaliatory war. The massacre has unlocked the next level of "acceptable" atrocity, in which ruthlessness means survival and civilians are convenient pawns.

by Fabiana Frayssinet, IPS, Italy - Almost a year and a half after floods wreaked havoc in a large part of the state of Rio de Janeiro, a group of women are struggling to rebuild their lives. They lost everything except their will to pick themselves up again and make the best of the aid they receive, to become self-sufficient again.

by Rime Allaf, The Daily Star, Lebanon - For all their frustrated desire to see the Assad regime fall, they miscalculated not only the foreign factors impeding this, but the domestic one as well: until now, the Syrian people stood squarely behind the regime, either because they truly and patriotically rallied behind the cause of the moment, believing there was a concerted effort to attack Syria, or because they had no choice.

by Kira Vermond, The Globe and Mail, Canada - Who cares about the environment these days?

by Amy Goodman, Truthdig, USA - As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and the casualties mount on all sides, the books by Rumsfeld and Cheney remind us once again of war’s first casualty: truth.

by Catherine Cheney, Der Spiegel, Germany - When Germany eliminated conscription this year, an extensive civil service program for conscientious objectors also came to an end. A new program launched to replace it, however, has not found enough volunteers. Now, many service organizations are facing shortages.

by Zoe Sullivan, Making Contact, USA - Communities across the country have embraced locally-grown food, fuel-efficient cars and other forms of environmentalism. While African-Americans haven’t been on widely credited, they are amongst the vanguard creating positive change.

by Galina Stolyarova, The St. Petersburg Times, Russia - “A rape victim is typically seen in society as someone worthy of compassion; a child involved in a commercial sexual exploitation scheme is seen differently — most people do not even think about how the children ended up in that situation, how traumatizing it is for them and how difficult and dangerous it is in many cases to break free from it,” said Anna-Maria Khramchenkova, the project’s coordinator.

by Mircea Cărtărescu, Evenimentul zilei, Romania - Although many commentators have called for it to be established, the United States of Europe remains a chimera, which is incompatible with the history and plurality of cultures on our continent.

by Kaitlin Cordes, Think Africa Press, UK - What is an informed consumer to do? When shopping for wine or fruit, consumers should ask the merchant where it comes from and under what conditions it was produced. They also should explicitly ask for products that are grown, harvested, packed and bottled by producers who are subject to ethical audits.

by Karla Arias Alvarado, Tico Times, Costa Rica - Founders of the Costa Rican company BioTD found a quicker alternative to the 80-year-old Pap smear. It could save lives.

by Rukhshona Nazhmidinova, European Journalism Observatory, Switzerland - The attacks in Oslo last month once again brought up the issue of framing in the media. As it turns out, not only do media outlets set the agenda for discussion in society, they also dictate how people should feel about the subjects in question.

by Krystalline Kraus, rabble, Canada - Canada has been one of countries that has either blocked or failed to back motions on secure water rights. At the UN Commission on Human Rights in 2002, Canada was the only country to vote against the Right to Drinking Water and Sanitation. In the most recent vote in 2010, Canada abstained.

by Ali Winston, ColorLines, USA - The use of deadly force has been at the heart of tensions between police and Oakland’s communities of color for decades. In 1968, OPD officers famously shot and killed 17-year-old Black Panther Bobby Hutton as he was surrendering following a shootout. Things have been hostile ever since.

by Meena Bhandari, Mail & Guardian, South Africa - An Indian college is training 12 Sierra Leonean women to become solar engineers as part of a drive to bring electricity to rural communities.

by Siobhan B. Lozada, Upside Down World, Canada - Like the community of El Sontule in Nicaragua, the rural community of San Jose las Flores in El Salvador is another example of how organizational capacity developed over decades of political conflict has led to collective efforts in sustainable community development.

by Gerta Louisama and Beverly Bell, Toward Freedom, USA - We’re asking the government to do a thorough agrarian reform. Most times, the peasants don’t own the land they are working on. The peasants should have ownership of the land they’re working. Land needs to be taken away from people who aren’t using it, and the state needs to let go of land it holds on to that could be used for farming, and be given to the peasants who are working it, with the other [agricultural] resources they need to farm.

by Tina Jelin, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - Population experts say that the world is facing enormous challenges in feeding and housing its human inhabitants as birthrates and life expectancy continue to rise. The global population is expected to reach a staggering 9.3 billion by 2050, with 97 percent of the growth in less developed regions.