by Sharon Weinberger, BBC, UK - Debris piling up around Earth that could seriously damage spacecraft and satellites has reached a tipping point. So how are we going to get rid of it?

by Azeen Ghorayshi, Mother Jones, USA- Early Monday morning, around 100 University of California police raided a five-acre patch of land owned by UC Berkeley and used occasionally for agricultural research. The raid came three weeks after roughly 200 activists, community members, and students took over a small patch of the land, known as the "Gill Tract," located in the small city of Albany, just north of Berkeley.

by Theda Skocpol, OpenDemocracy, UK- If Romney is elected he will probably be there with a Republican majority in both the Senate and the House and in the first three months he will sign bills that destroy healthcare reform, push privatisation of social security and Medicare, and cut taxes. In many ways he is the ideal Tea Party candidate – electable, but someone who will deliver their agenda.

by Shari Nijman, IPS, Italy - In the coming decades, the world's population is expected to grow by at least another two billion people, 80 percent of whom will live in cities by the year 2050.

by Maya Dusenbery, Mother Jones, USA - Between 1929 and 1974, North Carolina sterilized more than 7,500 of its residents. Most were operated on without their consent, having been deemed "feebleminded" and unfit to reproduce by the state Eugenics Board. Eighty-five percent were women; about 40 percent were black or Native American. As many as 2,000 victims are thought to still be alive.

by Marisela Castillo Apitz, Latin America Press, Peru - Political polarization impedes ruling government and opposition parties to create joint agenda to ensure women’s inclusion.

by Fawzia Sheikh, IPS, Italy - An indigenous group in the Amazon rain forest took its anti-oil message to Canada in a case rife with accusations of social and environmental damage that highlights the issue of securing consent prior to commencing exploration operations.

by Mette Lampcov, HuffingtonPost, USA - I approached the town having just climbed the high mountain ridge. Upon coming down into the valley, I was struck by the tranquility and the mist clinging to the surrounding mountains. But despite the initial beauty of the area, there was a dark and disturbing history that was hidden under the mist.

By Fabíola Ortiz, IPS, Italy- In the green belt of market gardens that feeds the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, women farmers are learning environmentally friendly techniques in response to extreme weather events and their effects on the land.

by Afiya Shehrbano Zia, OpenDemocracy, UK- Pakistan's Domestic Violence Bill has become the latest fatality in the barter between women's rights, NATO, and issues of national security.

by Claudia Ciobanu, IPS, Italy - As the economic slump drags on in Europe, refugees and immigrants are keeping a wary eye on state budgets, as governments in the throes of austerity slash the social protections and public services that minorities rely on.

by Jenny Allsopp, OpenDemocracy, UK- The argument is being made that “food sovereignty” is an organising principle so demonstrably strong that it has the potential to transform economic power. Can we really invest in it as the ecological principle to take us into the 21st century?

by Jessica Horn, Pambazuka News, Kenya - In conversation with Jessica Horn, a leading Malian women’s rights activist (name supplied but withheld on request) identifies the roots of the crisis in Mali, and the opportunistic use of the crisis by Malian and international Islamic fundamentalists to gain a popular foothold in the north of the country.

by Sherry Turkle, New York Times, USA - We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.

by Alia Brahimi, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Sentiment about Syria in Lebanon is mixed, as refugees flood in and survive thanks to goodwill.

by Susan Freinkel, Huffington Post, USA - In a study published last year in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers put five San Francisco families on a three-day diet of food that hadn’t been in contact with plastic. When they compared urine samples before and after the diet, the scientists were stunned to see what a difference a few days could make.

by Laura Carlsen, OpenDemocracy, UK- Women human rights defenders in Mexico are increasingly targeted, often by government forces, since drug war violence and militarisation provide a cover for attacking leaders of grassroots movements, says Laura Carlsen

by Mona Alami, IPS, Italy - A few kilometres separate the two Lebanese villages of Ersal and Qaa from the Syrian border, both of which have been unwillingly drawn into the violence of the Syrian uprising. Unrest has been brewing in the region for weeks and recently it was on the receiving end of intermittent gunfire from the Syrian army. The situation remains tense despite the fragile new ceasefire.

by Amantha Perera, AlertNet, UK - Experts warn that the effects of climate change, including more extreme weather patterns, could worsen the problems now faced by cities like Colombo and Dhaka, where millions live or commute daily to work. Limited water resources pose an additional, significant risk to large urban areas, as do rising sea levels in coastal areas.

by Helena Bottemiller, Food Safety News, USA - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking its biggest step yet to rein in the indiscriminate use of antibiotics that help food animals grow bigger, faster.

by Lindsey Hilsum, OpenDemocracy, UK- "Women played a largely unreported role in last year’s revolution in Libya. Now they have to fight both Islamist and secular men if they’re to have any influence in the new Libya, says Lindsey Hilsum."

by Shuriah Niazi, Women News Network, USA - A new women’s movement has been building in rural India. It’s demanding something never considered before for women who often live in areas without adequate or clean running water. Often these are homes with that have no vented heating or adequate flooring.

by Catherine Wilson, IPS, Italy - In Papua New Guinea (PNG), which has no national power grid but large river systems and abundant sunshine, renewable energy has tremendous potential to transform remote rural lives with clean and sustainable electricity.

by Arame Tall, Pambazuka News, Kenya - Relief. Jubilation. Levity. And most of all: Liberation. These are the emotions that surged up as I, along with the 12 million Senegalese citizens in Senegal and abroad, heard the news at 21:30 GMT today that current President Abdoulaye Wade had congratulated his opponent, Macky Sall, on his victory at the presidential election.

by Sarra El Idrissi, OpenDemocracy, UK- The 20th February movement was seen by some as elitist and too focused on political demands, while the people were more concerned with daily economic hardship. The main challenge for young activists now is to re-establish a social dialogue within Moroccan society, says Sarra El Idrissi

by Krystalline Kraus, rabble.ca, Canada- Martin was unarmed when he was shot by Zimmerman's semi-automatic. He can be heard begging for his life on the police dispatch recording of the incident.

by Lisa Anderson, TrustLaw, UK - Nearly two decades after war ended in Bosnia and Herzegovina, hundreds of women who survived rape and torture in the conflict are still seeking reparations and justice, with only 40 cases of sexual violence having been prosecuted so far, an Amnesty International report says.

by Kirsty Hughes, OpenDemocracy, UK - An early spring Sunday afternoon in Athens finds tourists and Greeks alike chattering away in cafes and on terraces soaking up the sunshine. But a walk around the centre soon reveals boarded up shops and buildings – many from closures, some from arson attacks at demonstrations this February and earlier.

by Cléo Fatoorehchi, IPS, Italy - Numerous non-governmental organisations used the World Water Forum (WWF) held in Marseille last week as an opportunity to remind the international community about the serious global impacts of large dams all over the world.

by Kristin Palitza, IPS, Italy - Children had to fear for their lives, and deal with the death of family members, hunger and displacement during the country’s violent unrest, which lasted from December 2010 until May 2011. Thousands were separated from their parents during the chaos. Many found themselves suddenly alone in the metropolis of Abidjan, forced to sleep in the street, beg, steal, work or sell their bodies to survive.

by Luisa Pascoareli, Women News Network, Brazil- Although the scenario seems very far away from ideal there are some new initiatives that are helping to change this outlook in São Paulo, Brazil. One of them is a unique project called “Mãos de Maria,” that has been created to help women who live inside the second biggest slum in São Paulo.

by Arundhati Roy, Dawn.com, Pakistan- In India the 300 million of us who belong to the new, post-IMF “reforms” middle class—the market—live side by side with spirits of the nether world, the poltergeists of dead rivers, dry wells, bald mountains and denuded forests; the ghosts of 250,000 debt-ridden farmers who have killed themselves, and of the 800 million who have been impoverished and dispossessed to make way for us. And who survive on less than twenty rupees a day.

by Valerie Schloredt, Countercurrents, India - The city of Boulder, Colo., has won the right to take its power supply—and carbon emissions—away from corporate control. The change for Boulder came in November when voters passed two ballot measures that allow the city to begin the process of forming its own municipal power utility.

by Zadie Neufville, IPS, Italy - Conservationists are beginning to fear that as demand grows for rare and exotic wildlife, Jamaican authorities will be unable to protect the island's natural treasures.

by Stephanie Hegarty, BBC, UK - Working as Afghanistan's only foreign defence lawyer, Kimberley Motley has helped both foreigners and Afghans trapped in the country's judicial system.

Susan Abad, Latin America Press, Peru - Gender violence law is enacted, but violence against women because of armed conflict is neglected.

by Katie Roiphe, Slate, USA - These are heady days for liberal self-congratulation. With Rush Limbaugh calling a law student a “slut,” and the general Republican fuss over contraception, there is a comforting sense of us and them, with us being tolerant, sexy, fun-loving, and them being puritanical, straight-laced, chauvinistic. Except that’s not quite how it is.

by Ruth Rosen, OpenDemocracy, UK- The war over contraception in America during the last bizarre month was never about religious freedom or women’s health care. It was about controlling women’s right to control their own bodies and to make their own sexual and reproductive choices, says Ruth Rosen

by Manuela Picq, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Examining female participation rates in parliaments reveals a new picture of women's rights across the globe.

by Claudia Ciobanu, IPS, Italy - Following EU accession, it has become ironically more difficult to access funding, primarily because EU funds must generally be co-financed from national budgets and also get distributed according to priorities set at the national level. As a consequence, NGOs find themselves limited by their governments’ agendas that are not always progressive.

by Carolyn Maloney, Huffington Post, USA - The Republican crusade to limit access to birth control for women across the country took an ugly turn last week. As our Republican colleagues continued their effort to extend the reach of the government into the bedroom, most of them stood silently by while one of their favorite radio personalities launched a despicable, sexually charged attack on a respectable young woman.

by Jody Williams, The Ottawa Citizen, Canada- While governments haggle over mining rights, women are being murdered, raped and assaulted in astounding numbers.

by Mariela Jara, IPS, Italy - This year’s unusually rainy season in Peru is having a negative effect on the wellbeing and health of women in rural areas who are forced, for example, to spend three times as much time walking to collect firewood and water. But the authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the problems they face.

by Esther Vivas, Pambazuka News, Kenya - How do we change the world? This is the question asked by thousands of people intent on changing things, the question that is often repeated in alternative social gatherings — a question that the French philosopher Daniel Bensaïd said has no answer: ‘Make no mistake, no one knows how to change the world.’ We do not have an instruction manual but we do have some hints on how to do it and some working hypotheses.

by Jessica Buchleitner, Women News Network, USA- For minority immigrant women, domestic service occupations in the United States generally do not provide any bridge or transition to other, better jobs. These jobs are often referred to as an ‘occupational ghetto’ since many of the women end up working for decades in ‘locked-down’ professions.

by Alice Friedemann, Countercurrents, India - Since there’s nothing that can be done about climate change, because there’s no scalable alternative to fossil fuels, I’ve always wondered why politicians and other leaders, who clearly know better, feel compelled to deny it. I think it’s for exactly the same reasons you don’t hear them talking about preparing for Peak Oil.

by Annette Lawson, OpenDemocracy, UK - As the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women opens in New York today, women's organisations from the UK find themselves ignored at home and excluded at the UN.

by Megan Rowling, AlertNet, UK - Six months after floods devastated large parts of southern Pakistan, the emergency is "far from over", with at least 2.5 million people lacking essentials such as clean water, enough food and durable shelter, says a report from a coalition of Pakistani and international aid agencies.

by Mary Robinson, The Guardian, UK - The discussions held at the upcoming London Somalia Conference are of great importance to the ordinary Somali. For the past 21 years, Somalia has suffered wars and droughts, which have resulted in an estimated 450,000 to 1.5 million people losing their lives. Somalia now has 1.36 million people who are displaced within their own country, the third highest displaced population in Africa.

by Marcela Valente, IPS, Italy - A high profile trial for trafficking of women is giving the public a clearer picture of how sex trafficking rings operate in Argentina, with victims who are even forced, eventually, to become victimisers.