by Ségolène Allemandou, France 24, France - France’s ruling UMP party is toughening its stance on immigration ahead of next year’s elections. By straying into the territory of the far right National Front, French Interior Minister Claude Gueant is playing a risky game.

by Roberta Brandes Gratz, The Atlantic, USA - Fifty years ago this month, Jane Jacobs published Death and Life of Great American Cities and changed the way the world understands cities. Yet even when she's acknowledged as an important urban thinker, the 'housewife' qualifier is invariably included.

by Cathrin Schaer, Der Spiegel, Germany - Lina Alabed, the maker of a new film about two women in Syria, discusses the role females have played in the Arab Spring, the equalizing effect of street protests and why it is hard to make documentaries that are critical of the regime in Damascus.

by Perpetual Sichikwenkwe, Gender Links, South Africa - From 28 November to 9 December 2011, Africa will host a historical meeting on climate change in Durban, South Africa. Different stakeholders will come together to discuss solutions to decisively deal with the growing threat of climate change.

by Cecilia Remón, Latin American Press, Peru - “Which is more important: water or gold? You don’t drink gold, you don’t eat gold. So mining cannot take over the waterbeds,” said President Ollanta Humala, during his campaign last April in the northern city of Cajamarca, one of Peru’s main mining cities.

by Gail Tverberg, Our Finite World, USA - World industrial production has self-organized in a way that assigns different roles to companies operating in the three country groups, as a way to minimize manufacturing costs. Over the long term, this particular version of self-organization cannot continue.

by Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn, Pakistan - It is now widely believed that the root of the evils of militancy and extremism in our society lies in the faulty education system of the country. Textbooks preach hatred and religious prejudice against non-Muslims.

by Rana F. Sweis, The New York Times, USA - For eight years, Nima Habashna has been garnering online support for the rights of Jordanian women to pass on their citizenship to their non-Jordanian spouses and children.

by Kim Ghatta, BBC, UK - Hillary Clinton's visit comes amid hopes that Burma may finally be embarking on the path of reform, and could signal the beginning of a turning point for the long ostracised Asian country. Despite elections decried as a sham last year, Burma's military-backed civilian leadership has taken unexpected steps towards reform by releasing dozens of political prisoners and relaxing some media restrictions.

by Jennifer Robinson, Al Jazeera, Qatar - It's time for the US to re-examine the consequences of its dehumanising, deadly attacks in Pakistan.

by Anastasia Moloney, AlertNet, UK - Violent crime in the Haitian capital has decreased in recent years and less than a quarter of residents view crime as a major problem, according to researchers.

by Juhie Bhatia, Global Voices, The Netherlands - As governments gear up for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) in Durban, South Africa, which starts today, experts are warning that among climate change's greatest consequences in developing countries such as Bangladesh are risks to the agriculture sector, including an increased risk of hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity.

by Jennifer L. Pozner, WIMN, USA - "So, so often, entertainment media (which is advertising-driven) and advertising itself are invested in making women feel like we’re incomplete or wrong, sexually, so that they can sell us a fantasy of what it would be like for us to be right...our sexuality is both the defining characteristic of all women and the product being sold. It’s never about our own pleasure, needs or boundaries. It’s always about being a prop in someone else’s play. Journalism & social media all too often unthinkingly repeat and amplify these tropes, because it’s what we’re used to hearing as a culture, so it “makes sense” to most people. There’s very little incentive for any sectors of the media to question this dominant narrative, and often real negative consequences if they do."

by Kristin Deasy, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - An Egyptian blogger who sparked controversy last week by posting a photo of herself naked online has also launched a campaign calling on men to don the Islamic headscarf.

by Bridget Di Certo and Meas Sokchea, The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia - After more than 30 years of waiting, justice begins to take shape today for millions of victims of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

by Amy Borovoy, Dissent, USA - Roe v. Wade created the possibility for women to have control over their lives and choices. But the discourse of "choice" alone has not provided a sustaining moral framework for handling the necessity of abortion, which will always be a final recourse.

by Penelope Paliani-Kamanga, Gender Links, South Africa - A study conducted by the Malawi Human Rights Commission in 2010 found that battered women often contemplate suicide because they see no other escape from the cycle of abuse, and that as many as a third of women who do commit suicide each year have suffered abuse by a male partner.

by Paulina Tambakaki, OpenDemocracy, UK - It has been argued that the euro-crisis and the events unfolding during the past week raise some serious questions about democracy in the member states of the European Union. The reason behind these questions is the formation of governments headed by technocrats (first in Greece, and now in Italy) following the forced removal of prime ministers viewed, suddenly, as weak and spineless.

by Ann Wright, Common Dreams, USA - Thousands of Egyptians perform Friday prayers during a rally in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Tens of thousands of protesters chanting, "Leave, leave!" are rapidly filling up Cairo's Tahrir Square in what promises to be a massive demonstration to force Egypt's ruling military council to yield power. The Friday rally is dubbed by organizers as "The Last Chance Million-Man Protest."

by Kalpana Sharma, The Hindu, India - The Supreme Court clears the way for women to become In-Flight Supervisors in Air India. Thanks to those women who believed in and fought for equality at the workplace.

by Emily Badger, The Atlantic, USA - “We built the wrong product in the wrong location, and nobody wants it any more,” he says. “That’s the reason for the housing crisis, and therefore the mortgage crisis, and therefore the Great Recession.”