by Helen Davidson, World News Australia, Australia - No more survivors will be pulled from the wreckage of the building collapse in Bangladesh that killed at least 381 people working in garment factories. The building housed thousands of garment manufacturing workers in the country’s capital, Dhaka, a city containing thousands of similar factories. These garment businesses supply the world with cheap clothing, and it’s possible an item you are wearing now, or have in your closet at home, was made by one of these workers.

by Rawya Rageh, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Opposition head to streets in anti-government demonstrations to mark second anniversary of 2011 revolution.

by Charlène Pelé, France 24, France - As Marseille takes the baton as European Capital of Culture 2013, it is hoping its full programme of arts and entertainment events will reshape traditional – and less savoury – perceptions of the city.

by Rebecca Murray, Al Jazeera, Qatar - UN figures indicate a "significant increase" in people smuggling and the violence that accompanies the illicit trade.

by Aude Mazoue, France 24, France - France’s Esther Duflo, a star economist who was once named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, has been nominated by US President Barack Obama to help shape US global development policy.

by Leela Jacinto, France 24, France - Taliban, CIA...who else can we blame for Pakistan’s polio campaign tragedy?

by Anna M Clark, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The fire at Tazreen factory, an unauthorised sub-contracted supplier to Walmart and other global retail brands, is a reminder that when it comes to human rights and workers' rights, we haven't come as far as we might think.

by Nisreen El Shamayleh, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Syrian refugees cite terrible living conditions in camps in neighbouring Jordan.

by Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC, USA - If Congress can’t reach a deal by New Year’s, 2.1 million people will be kicked off unemployment benefits. Not only would that be catastrophic for millions of low-income families across the country, it could strike a huge blow to our economy.

by Olivia Salazar Winspear, France 24, France - EU finance ministers reached an agreement on Thursday granting the European Central Bank new powers to supervise eurozone lenders beginning in early 2014, in what is Europe’s first major step toward a banking union in a bid to help shore up the euro.

by Catherine Norris Trent, France 24, France - It’s been 20 years since the bitter conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina broke out, a war which cost 100,000 people their lives. It tore communities apart, and ignited ethnic tensions between Bosnia’s three largest communities: Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Bosniak Muslims. And the country is still governed along ethnic lines.

by Lauren Wolfe, CNN, USA - The unending "dishonor" and manipulation of Syrians through sexualized violence is committed by all sides, although the majority of our reports indicate government perpetrators. It is creating an entire nation of traumatized people: not just the survivors of the acts, but their children as well.

by Mairead Dundas, France 24, France - Neither a house nor a hospital, Oasis is an alternative which has proven a haven for sick children and their families. The French government is currently evaluating this pilot project in Toulouse, with the threat that Oasis could be closed by the end of the year.

by Roopa Gogineni, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Critics say the global 'war on terror' has legalised a culture of impunity among the country's police forces.

by Sarah Mousa, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The current assault on Gaza is reminiscent of what happened nearly four years ago, but Gazans continue on.

by Elizabeth Landau, CNN, USA - For every 1,000 Mississippi babies born in 2011, 9.4 died before their first birthday, according to the state's health office. That makes Mississippi's infant mortality rate more comparable to countries such as Costa Rica (9.2), Sri Lanka (9.5) and Botswana (10.5) than the United States (6.0), according to latest estimates in the CIA World Factbook.

by Asma Jaber, Al Jazeera, Qatar - My latest attempt to return to my father, carrying memories of his lost home with me, was a devastating lesson in the indignities of exile and the fragility of life.

by Chanda Chevannes, Al Jazeera, Qatar - An American ecologist probes the effects of chemical industry polluting water supplies, while battling cancer.

by Abby D'Arcy Hughes & Anne Maillet, France 24, France - It's two years since the biofuel E10 arrived at German petrol stations, but it's failed to win over the population. Increasing food prices, for one, have fanned the flames of the debate.

by Jamela Alindogan, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Human Rights Watch says culture of impunity haunts the Philippines decades after the Marcos regime.

by Leila Jacinto, France 24, France - October 20, 2011 marked a milestone in Libyan history with the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi. A year later, Libyans still long for security, but they have managed a democratic transition – of sorts.

by Leila Jacinto, France 24, France - The opening of the first private abortion clinic in Northern Ireland, set for October 18, has unleashed a flurry of campaigns on both sides of the abortion divide and exposed the murky status of anti-abortion laws in the region.

by Basma Atassi, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Sixteen-year-old Yehya from the Syrian city of Homs had a perfect academic record and thought he was only two years away from realising his dream of joining a much-coveted medical course in Damascus. But after his school in the neighbourhood of Bab Amr was bombed in February and fierce fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels forced him and his family to flee to Lebanon, his dream now seems distant.

by Manuela Picq, Al Jazeera, Qatar - It costs US $292 to rape a child in Ecuador. That is the monthly pension a school director who sexually abused and impregnated a 12-year-old pupil was required to pay.

by Olivia Salazar-Winspear, France 24, France - Le Figaro and Libération are in agreement on the terrorist threat: it’s a home-grown phenomenon. Le Parisien evoked a drift towards terrorism among French youth, and Libération touches on a growing anxiety within the Jewish community.

by Yasmine Ryan, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Civil society groups express outrage after woman was accused of "immoral behaviour" by policemen jailed for raping her.

by Rachel Holman, France 24, France - Chanting "resistance", demonstrators took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to protest against austerity policies and Europe’s new budget treaty, in the first major demonstration since President François Hollande took power four months ago.

by Rachel Holman, France 24, France - The French government announced earlier this week that it would contribute to a fund to economically reinvigorate the country’s disadvantaged suburbs, or “banlieues” as they’re known in France. While on the surface the decision may seem unremarkable, the fund, which was initially to be financed entirely by Qatar, has been dogged by controversy.

by Teresa Bo, Al Jazeera, Qatar - "We can transform ourselves. We have repeated constantly that the seeing of a guerrilla group with their weapons entering a door and leaving with civilian clothes and with an empty bag is not going to happen in Colombia. But they can see a process of transformation of an insurgency into a social and political movement that is booming."

by Leela Jacinto, France 24, France - An Islamist wave in North Africa followed by the recent violence over an incendiary anti-Islam video clip and new Prophet Mohammad cartoons have revived an old call for an international law that criminalises religious defamation.

by Rosalind Jordan, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Violent protests in Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan and elsewhere as crowds target US, UK and German embassies.

by Jane Dutton, Al Jazeera, Qatar - As state censorship threatens freedom of expression, we ask if new leaders have adopted the old practices of oppression.

by Jane Ferguson, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Artists who fled country experienced "torture" by security forces but are still intent on continuing their work.

by Charlotte Boitiaux, France 24, France - France’s Socialist government on Wednesday announced new measures to help the Roma (Gypsy) community, notably by expanding their access to legal employment. Meanwhile, many of the country’s Roma continue to set up house on the streets of the capital.

by Manuela Picq, Al Jazeera, Qatar - You know hip-hop has become a universal language when indigenous peoples from the Andes use art forms developed by African-Americans in the south Bronx to contest power structures in Paris.

by Prerna Suri, Al Jazeera, Qatar - No new industries coming up in Indian-administered state, which is still feeling the effects of civil unrest.

by Aude Mazoue, France 24, France - As the economic crisis in Spain deepens, several regions are considering charging students who bring lunch from home up to €3 to use the school cafeteria, the latest in a series of reforms that critics claim are hurting the most vulnerable.

by Siobhan Courtney, Al Jazeera English, Qatar - Trapped in cycles of despair, men are committing 75 per cent of all suicides in the UK.

by Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi, Al Arabiya, Saudi Arabia - There is an assumption that women in Saudi Arabia do not have full rights to health care and can not provide consent for their own medical treatment or procedures. However, the Saudi government has indicated otherwise.

by Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Refugees fleeing into Lebanon mirror the broader divisions of Syrian society between the government and opposition.

by Catherine Nicholson & Andrea Davoust, France 24, France - Despite a poll suggesting a shocking lack of knowledge about the WWII round-up of Jews being commemorated Sunday, cities like the Parisian suburb of Drancy, which housed an infamous deportation camp, work hard to raise awareness among the young.

by Maggie Fox, MSNBC, USA - “Women, particularly those in their childbearing years, are uniquely at risk for being unable to afford the care they need, having trouble with medical bills, and having high out-of-pocket costs,” said Commonwealth Fund vice president Sara Collins.

by Leela Jacinto, France 24, France - As the country heads for its first free elections after the rise and fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is once more in the news - and it’s not good news. Yet behind the scenes, countless lives have changed - mostly for the better.

by Catherine Wambua, Al Jazeera, Qatar - As the country celebrates 50 years of independence, Ntarama church commemorates the 5,000 people massacred inside.

by Hala Al-Dosari, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Calls for reform are being revived. Female activists are wary of having their demands hanging by a thread, of having to rely on a willing "guardian", or on a "royal decree" to grant them promises instead of rights.

by Stephanie Boyd, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Ollanta Humala's crackdown on anti-mining protesters has alienated many of those who voted for him.

by Juliana Ruhfus, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Every year tens of thousands of West Africans migrate to Europe in search of a better life. But for some of them that search will end in tragedy, as they fall victim to competing mafia gangs that prey on the hopes of the desperate. In southern Italy, it is Nigerian women who are among the most exploited, with many ending up trapped in the nightmare world of the sex trade.

by Jennifer Granholm, Current TV, USA - “Nuns have, thoughout history, gently cared for the poor, the sick, the homeless. But today, these sisters are pocketing their rosaries – for the moment – and pulling on their boxing gloves.”

by Shirli Sitbon, France 24, France - France's Socialist government said Wednesday it moved to lower the retirement age to 60 for those who began working when they were very young, partially undoing an unpopular and much-protested reform of recently-departed president Nicolas Sarkozy.

by Jane Arraf, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Relatives and friends share their grief as bodies of 730 victims of infamous Anfal campaign are reburied.