The Taliban's leadership is prepared to drop its ban on girls' schools, one of Afghanistan's most influential cabinet ministers has claimed.

According to Farooq Wardak, the country's education minister, the movement has decided to scrap the ban on female education that helped earn the movement worldwide infamy in the 1990s.

Militia groups and government soldiers continue to profit from illegal mining in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, despite a ban on mining that was imposed by the government last year, according to campaigners

A group of government soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been detained over allegations of sexual violence earlier this month, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Human rights officers from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, believe that over a dozen women were raped and subjected to other abuses at the beginning of January, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Despite a peace deal with rebels in March 2009 and better ties with Uganda and Rwanda, the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains dangerous and troubled. Predatory acts against the civilian population, from illegal taxes and looting to mass rape, are on the rise. Rebel groups are proliferating and forming alliances, showing just how helpful the insecure status quo is to those keen on grabbing resources and influence.


The president of the National Women Council (NWC), Dr. Diane Gashumba, has said that during the council's just concluded 7-year mandate, they achieved a lot in regards to uplifting and empowering women in the country.

Gashumba made the remarks, yesterday, while addressing journalists at a news conference held at the Prime Minister's office, yesterday.

Over 400 women from Gahini Sector, Kayonza District, yesterday, completed at wo-day training on poverty eradication and basic rights.

Dr. Diane Gashumba, the chairperson of National Women Council (NWC), said the training was aimed at equipping the participants with knowledge that would enable them contribute to socio-economic development.

UN Women, the UN organisation dedicated to gender equality and women empowerment, today said its creation would not curtail the responsibility of any other UN organisation working for gender equality.

Created by the UN General Assembly in July 2010 to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide, UN Women has been fully operational from January 1.

A defense lawyer in the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba today stated that there were several militia groups that committed atrocities in Bangui at the time the accused's troops were in the capital of the Central African Republican (CAR).

Ugandan rebels of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) headed by Joseph Kony attacked two villages in the south of the Central African Republic (CAR), abducting 12 civilians, for the most part women, and causing significant damages. According to the local media, the villages are Agoumar, near Rafai, and Madabazouma, around 100km from Bangassou.

Back in the heady days of 1970s feminism there was an argument that once women achieved political power, there would be no more war. Margaret Thatcher and her Falklands war exploded that myth, and along with it any residual notion that women might do foreign policy differently from men.