Côte d'Ivoire, the world's biggest cocoa producer, has been in turmoil since early December when President Laurent Gbagbo refused leave office despite opposition leader Alassane Ouattara's UN-certified victory in November's run-off election. If the situation worsens, the number of refugees in Liberia could increase dramatically.

In a presidential statement, the 15-member body called for “a more effective and coherent” national and international response so that countries emerging from conflict can deliver core government functions such as ensuring security, managing political disputes peacefully, protecting their populations, revitalizing the economy and providing basic services.

The incidents took place in the town of Sagag where Ina (The daughter of) Sheikh Mahamud Sheikh Abdillahi and Halima Badal Sam-Sam Abiib were subjected to extreme forms of torture while under the custody of the Ethiopian Armed Forces.

Nearly all of these internally displaced persons, or IDPs, fled their homes during violent clashes that erupted earlier this month – part of a national crisis that has gripped Côte d'Ivoire since elections were held in late November.

When the punishment, 100 whip lashes, was postponed because she was pregnant Ms Anab Mussa thought she was the luckiest woman in the world. She had misread the Al-Shabaab-backed court.

The court in Wanlaweyn town, some 100 kilometres west of Mogadishu, had convicted Anab for having sexual relations out of wedlock.

Speaking at the ceremony, acting chairman of the PPRC, Roland Ade Caesar Esq. said bringing all women together to be united in politics was first of its kind in the history of Sierra Leone, noting that women were still underrepresented. This, he said, was the reason why Resolution 1325 of the UN African Charter was advocating for women to be actively involved in politics like their men folks.

January 20, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The UN on Thursday claimed that the security situation in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur is improving, but daily reports from its peacekeepers on the ground paint a different picture.

Georg Charpentier, the head of the UN humanitarian mission in Sudan, told reporters in Khartoum on Thursday that the UN had observed “a trend of decreasing overall violent incidents in Darfur.”

Mogadishu — When the punishment, 100 whip lashes, was postponed because she was pregnant Ms Anab Mussa thought she was the luckiest woman in the world. She had misread the Al-Shabaab-backed court.

The court in Wanlaweyn town, some 100 kilometres west of Mogadishu, had convicted Anab for having sexual relations out of wedlock.

Even before last year's earthquake, Haiti was one of the toughest places in the Western Hemisphere to be a woman. Nowhere else in Latin America, North America, or the Caribbean is the maternal mortality rate higher, literacy rate lower, and life expectancy shorter than for women in Haiti.

Having suffered pain and injustice for decades, women of the northeastern region of the country are coming together to act as interlocutors between various groups and thus play a key role in the peace process, experts said at a conference here Wednesday.