As the United Nations marked the International Women's Day centennial on Tuesday, the UN humanitarian chief drew attention to the women displaced by conflicts or national disasters around the world.

Valerie Amos, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, called on the international community to remember the challenging conditions facing displaced women.

Marches by thousands of women in protest at Ivory Coast's president Laurent Gbagbo have ended in bloodshed after his army killed four people.

The women made their stand on International Women's Day, less than a week after Gbagbo's soldiers killed seven women at a peaceful demonstration, earning worldwide condemnation.

To mark International Women's Day, the EU Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs will launch tomorrow, for the fifth year in a row, a Gender Drawing contest designed to raise awareness on women's conditions and rights in developing countries, through the involvement of children. He will also inaugurate a joint EU/UN photo exhibition in Timor Leste with the Special Representative of the UNSG Ms Ameerah Haq.

The Acting Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Vadim Kuznetsov, called for better implementation of the country's gender equality law in a statement released to mark today's 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day.

Empowering women in agriculture could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 100 million to 150 million, the United Nations said.

Female farmers across all regions control less land and livestock than men, use less improved seed varieties and fertilizer, and are less likely to use credit and insurance, the UN's Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report on Monday.

More than 40 women's cooperatives have formed small businesses across Lebanon to revitalize communities that were economically devastated by the 34-day conflict with Israel in 2006.

Focusing on the well-being of women and wider communities in areas of Lebanon where some live on incomes as low as US$2.40 per day, the 42 cooperatives were resourced and trained with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The United Nations Security Council, in resolutions 1325 and 1820, recognized that women and girls need protection and support during and following all conflicts, and called for women's full participation in peacebuilding.

Voters in Haiti go to the polls on Sunday, March 20, 2011 to elect a new president and a new Parliament. Those elected will face daunting challenges as Haiti rebuilds itself: quake-related devastation, systemic poverty, ongoing crises in the delivery of basic services such as health care and education, and violence.

"Hope is dying in Afghanistan."

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Women Wing Sindh Information Secretary Ms Sharmila Farooqui left here on Sunday for the United States to attend the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day to be held next week in Washington under the aegis of the State Department and its programme `Year of Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges'.