by Phyllis Bennis, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The deal has been discussed since Shalit was captured in 2006, now the time has come for 1028 families to be reunited.

by Julia Whitty, Mother Jones, USA - A profile of the late Blackfeet woman who successfully sued the federal government for billions on behalf of ripped-off Native Americans.

by Nicky Rehbock, Media Club, South Africa - South Africans Stefanie Botha and Angela Shields have shattered all stereotypes by competing as the only all-female rally racing crew in the country for 2011, showing they're every bit as skilful and capable as their male counterparts.

by Alison Flood, Guardian, UK - Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Noam Chomsky among star names added to online petition at occupywriters.com.

By Clare Morgana Gillis, Jim Michaels and William M. Welch, USA Today, USA - His 42 years of despotic rule already at an end, deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi ran out of places to hide Thursday and was killed after being cornered by rebels in his hometown stronghold of Sirte.

by Polly Pallister-Wilkins, OpenDemocracy, UK - The uprisings in North Africa, the subsequent increase in migrants crossing the Mediterranean and the cataclysmic predictions about an end to the Schengen acquis has highlighted a hitherto under-investigated policy practice of the EU: migration-management.

by Nisrin Elamin, Pambazuka, Kenya - On 9 July 2011 South Sudan became Africa’s 54th nation, after the vast majority of its people voted for secession from the North. The ink has barely dried on the documents formalising South Sudan’s self-determination, but the scramble for its land is already in full swing.

by Katie Murray, AlterNet, UK - Climate change will be “catastrophic” to global health and could foster global instability and insecurity, a group of prominent scientists, environmental health experts and government officials warned Monday.

by Kate Taunton, Al Jazeera English, Qatar - How two activists are challenging Indian society and transforming trafficked girls into the leaders of tomorrow.

by Rebecca Solnit, TomDispatch, USA - The United States is now the wealthiest country the world has ever known, and has an abundance of natural resources, as well as of nurses, doctors, universities, teachers, housing, and food -- so ours, too, is a crisis of distribution. Everyone could have everything they need and the rich would still be rich enough, but you know that enough isn’t a concept for them.

by Zubeida Mustafa, Zubeida Mustafa, Pakistan - Today people don’t ‘retire’ in the conventional sense of withdrawing from active life to wait for the inevitable end. Most people remain as active in their later years as they have been in any of their other ‘ages’.

by Celia W. Dugger, The New York Times, USA - New York Times reporter Celia Dugger reports from West Africa on progress in community-based efforts to eradicate female genital cutting.

by Avesta Choudhary & Yamini Deenadayalan, Tehelka, India - Forty-eight hours after her 22-year-old daughter Naina’s death, Malti Singh, 55, managed to lodge a first information report (FIR) at the Vijay Nagar Police Station in Ghaziabad on Monday after Twitter became abuzz with the news of an alleged dowry death being brushed aside by the police.

by Constanza Vieira, IPS, Italy - The constant violations of international humanitarian law in Colombia claimed the life of an 11-year-old indigenous girl a month ago in the mountains of the southwest province of Cauca.

by Karla Arias Alvarado, Tico Times, Costa Rica - Foreign fishing ships are bringing in shark skeletons – the flesh shaved away – with just their fins attached to the body. Local fishermen see this as another way that fishing fleets are evading shark finning laws.

by Rachel Holman, France 24, France - Anti-discrimination organisations and advocacy groups are gathering for a massive rally in the heart of Paris Monday to remember the victims of a deadly police crackdown against Algerian protesters in Paris fifty years ago.

by Keri Leicher, Consultancy Africa Intelligence, South Africa - One of Africa’s largest and wealthiest nations in terms of natural resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is currently gearing itself to host multi-party elections on 27 November 2011, only the second of its kind since the country gained independence some fifty years ago. Whilst high expectations surround the event, calls of foul play have already been heard as many claim that the elections have become a one-man game, as current President Joseph Kabila seeks to entrench his power.

by Kelly Rigg, Huffington Post, USA - Today is World Food Day, a perfect moment to reflect on what the very real impacts of climate change mean for those who suffer from hunger and malnutrition. It comes at a time when millions of people are struggling to survive in East Africa where the worst drought in 60 years is devastating millions of lives and livelihoods.