It's being called a "landmark decision." A federal judge ruled November 18 in favor of New Orleans residents and one business, the plaintiffs, and against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a Hurricane Katrina flooding lawsuit. U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr, decided that the Corps failed to maintain the levees that breached during Katrina, flooding St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The case involved six plaintiffs, two of which are in the same household, and the court awarded $720,000 in compensation to the remaining four.

Not long after I graduated from college, I worked at a government agency. One of my co-workers was in the middle of a bitter divorce. Prior to the divorce, he stayed home caring for his two young sons. Once his wife left him, however, she filed for custody of the children. At the time, he did not contest the filing, as he did not want to upset his kids any more than they already were. However, he was clearly heartbroken and missed nurturing his children.

Take one part Olympic fever, one part the realities of a Canadian winter, one part philanthropy and one part Canadian patriotism all rolled up in red wool and what do you get? Canada's obsession with the Canadian 2010 Olympic mittens.

I visited a friend in London this past weekend. While I was there, I ate lots and lots of yummy chocolate and cheese and baked goods. I basked in the idea that national health care was a given. Even more, the UK National Health Service doesn't rob women of their reproductive rights by allowing religion to dictate what health services are covered; except for in Northern Ireland, termination (abortion) services are covered. After a horrible week in the US, where Democrats sold out women and allowed religious lobbies to impose their beliefs on my health, I thought about defecting. London is perfect! Well, except that even in the UK, women are told that you need set aside your own preferences and needs if you want to get and keep a man.

First they called her "that girl". Then, "madam". Eventually, they referred to her as "sir."

The first Remembrance Day that I remember clearly...I had to have been about 7. It was my first, and only, year in Brownies. I was chosen to walk with the Canadian flag in my town's Remembrance Day ceremony. This meant standing at attention in the cold, marching just ahead of the Veterans, standing with the flag while everyone sat during the church ceremony. Clearly it made an impression on me. In fact, I was stunned when I went to university to find out that Remembrance Day was not observed on campus (it is now).

Whenever I hear arguments about how women perform their jobs differently than men, I cringe. Usually it is meant as a compliment, like the idea that because women are supposedly inherently nurturing, consensus seeking, peacemakers, we are better managers or legislators or whatever. Really, what's important is when women who are able and competent get jobs they deserve. No example is more obvious than that of Ft. Hood civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley.

Yoani Sánchez, popular Cuban blogger from "Generación Y", was forced into a car and beaten by secret police in Havana along with Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo and Claudia Cadelo, who writes for OctavoCero and Global Voices.

Much as we would like to believe that the long-drawn West Asian wars will end soon, the fact is that the U.S. now has a third front to its war on terror: Pakistan. And the Pakistan front is likely to be open for a long time. As a Taliban spokesperson reportedly said: "We are prepared for a long war."

Earlier this week Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, landed in Newfoundland and began their first visit to the country since they were married in 2005. During the trip Camilla will get in touch with her Canadian roots by visiting her ancestor's Canadian castle.

For almost 15 years, Rody Alvarado Peña fought to stay in the United States. She fled here seeking asylum after suffering from horrific abuse at the hands of her husband. To save her life, she had to leave her two children with her parents. Her hope was that once she established herself in the US, they could join her. Instead, she found herself caught in a legal debate over whether domestic violence is a legitimate claim for asylum seekers. On October 30, 2009, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration recommended that Ms. Alvarado be granted asylum.

For the past four years, the World Economic Forum has studied the gender gap - that is, the amount of resources dedicated to boys and girls and women's opportunities to fully participate in society - in over 100 countries, then ranked them. (In 2009, the Index included data from 134 nations. At least 12 of 14 indicators used for the Index must be available in order for a country to be included.) The goal, according to the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, is: