by Anne Wolf, Good Governance Africa, South Africa - Was it coincidence or was it deliberate? Following the January 2013 terrorist attack at the natural-gas complex in the Saharan town of In Amenas, the Algerian government once again spurned the adoption of modern mobile phone standards. The government blamed administrative procedures for its decision. Others viewed this rejection as the regime’s latest step to curb dissent.

by Lisa Laplante, riosmontt-trial.org, Guatemala - The Guatemalan trial of former de facto head of state Rios Montt and his then head of military intelligence Rodriguez Sanchez remains at a standstill while various legal challenges wind their way through the Guatemalan courts.

Rios Montt and Rodriguez Sanchez are being prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity for their actions during Rios Montt’s 17-month rule in 1982 and 1983. However, in a bewildering turn of events, their trial was abruptly halted last Thursday, despite imminent closing arguments, when a judge of a first-instance court ordered the trial annulled and the proceedings reverted 17 months, a decision rejected by the trial court as illegal.

by Kelly Chen, Center for Investigative Reporting, USA - This week marks 10 years since the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq. What began as a mission to find weapons of mass destruction has become a decadelong war that has cost hundreds of billion of dollars so far. At home, this resonates in many ways: What does it mean for veterans returning home? How has public opinion on the war changed?

by Maeve McClenaghan, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, UK - The indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilians in the south of Sudan could amount to crimes against humanity, according to a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.

by Ana Arana and Daniela Guazo, Knight Center for Journalism, USA - A lack of official government information including credible crime reports has further complicated the media´s job, an investigation by Mexico City-based Fundacion MEPI found.

by Nana Kurashvili, IWPR, UK - Opposition bloc’s transition to power has been unexpectedly smooth so far, but the real question is what it plans to do.

by Hilary Matfess, Foreign Policy in Focus, USA - American democracy is in a sorry state when corporations are granted more access to even the text of sweeping government agreements than the public and its elected officials. Although corporate influence on U.S. trade policy is hardly a new phenomenon, the simultaneous waning of congressional oversight is all the more unsettling.

by Rannveig Svendby, Kilden, Norway - Embarrassing silence, the “bad mother look” and open confrontation – these are some of the reactions faced by Norwegian women who do not live with their children after a break-up.

by Elizabeth Donnelly, Chatham House, UK - Whether by accident or design, Nigeria is destined to become Africa’s largest economy. The kind of economic growth it will experience in the coming years and the extent to which this will transform the lives of its 160 million people is yet to be determined.

by Violeta Krasnic, Foreign Policy in Focus, USA - “Women were not the makers of the war and were not at the negotiating table when the conflict stopped. But they were the first ones to cross imaginary and imposed borders and began working on rebuilding the country inside out,” says Taida Horozović.

by Serene Fang, Center for Investigative Reporting, USA - Despite the Fukushima catastrophe in Japan last March, nuclear power is experiencing a rebirth in the United States. Billions of dollars in federal funding has been allocated to develop nuclear capacity; applications are under consideration to build more than a dozen new reactors; and last month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced approval for the construction of the first new nuclear reactors in more than three decades. But what about the nation’s existing fleet of aging reactors?

by Alicia Sorroza, Real Instituto Elcano, Spain - The economic and financial crisis affecting Europe seems to be changing the map of the interests involved in the EU-China relationship.

by Silvia Viñas, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, USA - Despite dire statistics on Chile’s inequality, the country’s prosperity cannot be denied and its steady economic growth is looked upon with admiration during the current financial crisis. Nevertheless, unless it effectively targets high rates of inequality, the majority of Chileans will not take notice when the country reaches a “developed country’s” GDP.

by Sarah Browning, Foreign Policy in Focus, USA - Poets gathered in Fez, Morocco, and Jalalabad, Afghanistan and Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. All this – and more – made up 100 Thousand Poets for Change on Saturday, September 24, 2011. Poets gathered in over 550 cities in 95 countries to speak out for peace and sustainability.

by Namrata Hasija, Institute of Peace & Conflict Studies, India - With the de-collectivization of land a surplus of labour was generated in the rural areas which led to a large scale migration to urban areas in search of jobs, in turn leading to the feminization of agriculture. Adding to this, their already heavy domestic burden and the usually hostile environment of the groom’s family, which traditionally sees the wife as a “purchased commodity”, has led to an acute male-female imbalance.

by Amanda Knarr, COHA, USA - As globalization has carried with it a greater degree of potential for economic integration among different nations, the tiny English-speaking Caribbean states are fighting for their place in an ever-shrinking world.

by Tarisai Nyamweda, Gender Links, South Africa - From skin lighteners and vagina tightening creams to hip, bum and breast enhancement pills, the list has become endless for the ordinary woman on the street.

by Amali Wedagedara, IDSA, India - Since 1971, Sri Lanka has been in a constant state of emergency with the exception of brief intervals. The state has demonstrated a penchant for emergency laws in responding to various kinds of crises such as communal riots, youth riots, even natural disasters and labour strikes.

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 Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Hudson Institute, USA - Immigration reform, however divisive, is crucial to economic growth. Making it easier to get lawful entry helps the economy. Today, entering the country legally, whether as a tourist, student, entrepreneur, or worker is a lengthy, bureaucratic, and often expensive process.

by Chloe Gleitz, Consultancy Africa Intelligence, South Africa - The short-term tactics of drone strikes are likely to work against U.S. counter-insurgency efforts, by undermining the Transitional Federal Government's already feeble authority and legitimacy, creating a surge in Anti-American sentiment, and strengthening the power of extremists.

by Carol Ciriaco, COHA, USA - In an era characterized by corruption and a deadly ongoing war against drugs—one that has progressively hindered the ability of the federal government to ensure its national security—a truly representative government free of corruption is more necessary than ever before.

by Katie Soltis, COHA, USA - The standard ammunition of many semiautomatic rifles can even pierce through the armor worn by police officers. As drug trafficking organizations have acquired these more dangerous and expensive weapons, it has become even harder for the Mexican authorities and police to counter drug-related violence.

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 Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, USA - In the midst of the Arab Spring, which directly rejects al-Qaeda-style small-group violence in favor of mass-based, society-wide mobilization and non-violent protest to challenge dictatorship and corruption, does the killing of Osama bin Laden represent ultimate justice, or even an end to the "unfinished business" of 9/11?

by Katherine Austin-Evelyn, Consultancy Africa Intelligence, South Africa - International development experts have been criticising the dangers of ‘shopping well to save the world’ and ‘investing in a girl to eradicate global poverty.’

by Sue Sturgis, Facing South, USA - The current regulatory system relies on the polluters to turn themselves in and accurately report what they've spilled -- even though they're subject to fines based on the amount released.

by Dr. Leila Farsakh, Institute for Palestine Studies, Lebanon - Implications of the protest movements in the Arab world on Palestinian politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

by Sabrina Peric, Foreign Policy in Focus, USA - The number of officially unemployed in Croatia is 334,000, which translates into a nearly 20 percent unemployment rate. But this figure masks the tens of thousands who are employed but have not received a salary in six months, the tens of thousands who are paid in a combination of cash and store credits that they have to spend at particular grocery stores by a certain date, and the many families with only one or no income.

by Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies, USA - There are still places in the world where folks from across the political spectrum can have a rational discussion about fair taxation.

by Claudia Costa, European Journalism Centre, Netherlands - Within one day of the opening of the swine flu National Health Service (NHS) website, it registered 2,600 hits per second and an average of 9.3 million hits per hour.

by Mallary Jean Tenore, Poynter, USA - It’s only been about the past quarter of a second, historically speaking, that women have been encouraged to take part in the public debate. Now they’re completely engaged, and I know that’s going to be reflected in opinion pages and opinion sites.

by Ellen Brown, Global Research, Canada - Underlying the sudden, volatile uprising in Egypt and Tunisia is a growing global crisis sparked by soaring food prices and unemployment.

by Fiona Dwinger, Consultancy Africa Intelligence,South Africa- The Grameen Bank has risen to become the institutional star praised by proponents of microfinance, today providing services to around 6 million borrowers in Bangladesh alone. The question is whether the same financial instruments can be applied to Africa’s poor with similar poverty alleviating and developmental effects.

by Aziza Ahmed, Sexuality Policy Watch, Brazil - The International AIDS Conference in 2010 held one of the first plenary sessions dedicated to abortion and HIV. The plenary focused on the needs of HIV positive women to obtain a full range of reproductive health services, including abortion, as central to a human rights based response to the HIV epidemic There are particular reasons to pay more attention to abortion in the context of HIV.

By Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, Asian Human Rights Commission, China - Last week, the government of Pakistan announced it would push the National Assembly to pass the long-awaited Acid Control and Burn Crime Prevention Bill this month. The bill, first introduced in January 2010, emerged from collaboration among the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), National Commission on Status of Women, United Nations Development Fund for Women, and the Pakistan Ministry of Women Development.

by Ana Cristina Alve and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, South African Institute for International Affairs, South Africa - China is both an important partner at a political and economic level for SA, but equally one which has elicited criticism from some quarters, especially in the trade union movement where it has been accused of being responsible for the loss of jobs in certain manufacturing sectors.

by Katie Zaunbrecher, COHA, USA - Crime and violence long have been prevalent throughout Guatemala, but in the fourteen years since the end of the country’s bloody internal conflict, violence against women and girls has escalated markedly. Like in many countries where rates of violence against women are particularly shocking, Guatemala is a country on the brink of lawlessness.

by Nidžara Ahmetašević, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Bosnia-Herzegovina - The reluctance of women survivors from the town to talk about their own sufferings – and the stigma that still surrounds rape – has allowed a grave crime to go unpunished.

by Gitanjali Bakshi, Middle East Political and Economic Institute, Romania - Concerns about water -- a less celebrated resource in the Middle East have always been latent, lying beneath the surface and quietly shaping geo-political events in the region. In the future, Blue Gold will become so increasingly precious that, much like the black gold of today, water will no longer play a latent role, but will instead be an integral part of the region’s political agenda.