Southern Sudanese are at the polls to decide whether they want to remain part of a united Sudan or to break away and become Africa's newest country. The referendum is taking place from 9 to 15 January, but official turnout figures are not expected until the beginning of February. The outcome, which is largely expected to result in an independent South, will have an enormous impact in both the South and the North.

UNITED NATIONS -- "On the day of the attack I woke up before dawn ... before I could even say anything he threw the acid at my face and fled. I was rushed to the hospital; my face and body were burned severely. As a result I am blind in both eyes, I have lost both earlobes have gone through 16 skin grafting surgeries"

Ms Alexandra Cohen, an eighth grader from Montreal, Canada has made a passionate plea for effective measures to protect Haitian women and children from sexual violence.

In a letter to the Montreal Gazette, the girl recalls a gruesome report by the UN that said in 2008 almost half the girls and young women living in poverty in Haiti had been raped. UNICEF estimated that 100,000 Haitian girls are currently held captive as sex slaves.

Mogadishu — Al shabaab movement continued imposing their strict orders on Somali women in IDPs camps just out side of Mogadishu.

In Haiti, one year after its devastating earthquake, UN Women is working side by side with national counterparts to stop violence against women, expand women's economic options and increase space for women to participate in decisions that affect them. The head of UN Women in Haiti, Sheelagh Kathy Mangones, shares an update.

The inauguration of Brazil's first female president is a stark reminder that the United States lags far behind its Latin American neighbors in electing women to power.

Dilma Rousseff took Brazil's presidential oath on Jan. 1, becoming the leader of Latin America's largest and most powerful country.

For the last ten years, Isis-WICCE has carried out case studies and in-depth research in South Sudan, trained women grassroots leaders as well as health workers. This week as the South Sudan holds the historical referendum where they will decide whether to separate from the north, giving birth to a new African state, or for unity, Isis-WICCE's Rosebell Kagumire sought out views and experiences of women from different states on the event.

AMPALA, Jan 13, 2011 (IPS) - John Garang, the revered late leader of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, once said that women are the "the poorest of the poor and the marginalised of the marginalised". As the reality of an independent South Sudan approaches, the region's women have vowed they will not remain second class citizens.

The daughter of an Afghan politician has reportedly died of her injuries after being raped by American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan's southwestern province of Farah.

A high-level military commission is set to recommend that the Pentagon reverse its long-standing policy that bars women from being in combat.

Hundreds of thousands of women are currently serving in the U.S. military, and many of them are in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Pentagon's policy, women are, and always have been, barred from taking part in any ground combat operations.