State Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and National Director of project “Fight against sexual and gender-based violence” Snezana Lakicevic will open the National conference “Response to violence against women in family and partner relations” on 29 June at 9.30 at the Deputies' Club, Tolstojeva 2.

Malta, Cyprus and Estonia have been put on a watch list by the US for allegedly failing to stop high levels of human trafficking.

The PSNI is becoming increasingly concerned that dangerous crime gangs involved in human trafficking are targeting Northern Ireland because of a highly lucrative demand for prostitutes.

The force's Organised Crime Branch has warned there is a growing interest in the province for traffickers because of a gap in the vice market.

Nearly 2,000 Ethiopian migrants trapped in violence-hit Yemen are being evacuated, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

It said it had so far flown out 275 Ethiopians, some of whom had gun-shot wounds.

Yemen has been hit by months of instability, caused by the president's refusal to bow to opposition demands to quit.

Two Somali migrants were killed in the capital, Sanaa, last month.

Josephine, from Masisi in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, says that she chose to join the National Congress for the Defence of the People, CNDP, militia in order to escape a marriage that was being forced upon her by her parents.

"I joined the CNDP to avoid revenge from [the man that was to be] my husband," Josephine said. Her parents had wanted her to marry a widowed man when she was just 16.

The First Lady, Dr. (Mrs.) Ernestina Naadu Mills, says the issue of respect for and promotion and protection of women's rights can only be achieved if all arms of government play their expected roles.

UN Women together with the City of Kigali launched a project aimed at promoting the rights of working women and girls.

The project called 'Safe Cities Free of Violence against Women and Girls' was launched on Friday at Kimisagara Youth Centre in Nyarugenge District.

Empowering women and advancing their rights is not only the right thing to do but it can lead to progress on a range of issues, including the fight against poverty, hunger and violence, the head of the United Nations agency tasked with promoting women's rights said today.

Korlu, a young mother of two, lives on the outskirts of Monrovia, the capital here.

A high school dropout, Korlu, who declined to give her last name for safety reasons, says when she was a teen, she became pregnant.

"My parents put me out of their house because they couldn't bear the shame of me getting pregnant," she says.

After years of campaigning by women's organizations, the Kurdish Parliament has finally passed a tough anti-domestic violence law that will create a special court to address domestic violence cases.