Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today challenged men to champion the cause for the empowerment of women, saying they remained “second-class citizens”, often subjected to violence in many societies, despite the important gains made in improving their participation in social, economic and political affairs.

Doubts are emerging over whether cash transfers, designed to strengthen local markets, also empower women and change gender roles in emergencies.

"Gender relations are quite complex and you cannot assume US$50 is going to change that," Sarah Bailey, research officer at the Humanitarian Policy Group, told IRIN. "You cannot assume targeting women necessarily leads to their empowerment or promotes gender equality."

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is working with AMC, the second-largest microfinance institution in El Salvador, to enhance the availability of financial services for the country's underserved populations, especially in rural areas and for women entrepreneurs.

Turkey's flawed family violence protection system leaves women and girls across the country unprotected against domestic abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Life-saving protections, including court-issued protection orders and emergency shelters, are not available for many abuse victims because of gaps in the law and enforcement failures.

Large numbers of Iranian schoolgirls staged a rally in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Tuesday to protest at the massacre of peaceful protestors, specially girls, in Bahrain by the Saudi and al-Khalifa forces.

In the Tuesday gathering, the students who had come from different schools in Tehran condemned the crackdown, torture and massacre of the Bahraini girls and women by the Manama government and Saudi forces.

Today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a new partnership, the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA), that will harness the power of mobile technology to deliver vital health information to new and expectant mothers.

According to the results of studies conducted within the framework of UN Population Fund project “Fight against gender-based violence in Azerbaijan” the country's media are not predisposed to focus on the concerns related to the violation of women's rights.

Ignace Murwanashyaka, the head of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and his deputy Straton Musoni are in the dock in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart. The two men are charged with ordering mass killings and rapes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from Germany, where they have lived for years.

Iranians take to the streets in Tehran to show support for Bahraini women enduring the violence and crimes committed against them by Saudi-backed security forces.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the capital following the Friday Prayers to condemn the brutal repression of anti-regime protests in Bahrain, Fars News Agency reported.

The head of a Bougainville women's NGO says it supports a possible return of peace monitors to the autonomous Papua New Guinea province.

Bougainville's president John Momis says it may be necessary to bring back the United Nations peace keepers if violence and lawlessness are not brought under control in the south of the main island.