Bangladesh, with two women leaders dominating the country's political scene both as Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, has called for women empowerment and recruitment of women in senior positions of the United Nations.

Female MPs, both religious and secular, have slammed the under-representation of women in Iraqi institutions, especially government, sparking public soul-searching by male parliamentarians.

On Saturday night parliament adopted a resolution affirming that "the issue of women is a priority" and creating a monitoring committee on women's affairs, Speaker Omar al-Nujaifi announced.

Women in Zimbabwe have come out strongly against the idea of holding elections in 2011, saying that a full implementation of the Global Political Agreement is necessary, before any polls. Speaking under the auspices of the Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe, the women said they plan to block Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai from holding elections next year, if they do not make the key changes that they agreed to.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to name and shame individuals and parties to armed conflict that are "credibly suspected" of committing rape or other forms of sexual violence.

The Karen are one of the largest ethnic groups in Burma, with a population estimated to be around 7 million. The Karen people have long faced severe repression and oppression there, an historic reality that is now tragically (and surprisingly openly) repeating itself.

Canada should threaten to withhold aid to Afghanistan unless women are fully included in the peace process and push for more women in the country's security forces, a new Senate report says.

Canada should also put resources into helping build the justice system, particularly in remote communities, and provide gender sensitivity training for the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, as well as their Canadian trainers.

"Women now are watching and waiting," Margot Wallström, the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, told the Security Council today as it concluded its debate on that subject.

Nine years after religiously conservative Taliban fighters forced women into hiding, many have emerged from the shadows.

Today, women are visible everywhere on Kabul's dusty roads, on their way to work and school, striding past donkey carts loaded with key limes and pomegranates, making their way past Toyotas and SUVs.

The Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), has stepped up efforts at promoting increased women participation in the December 28, district level polls, has organised a two-day workshop for the media in the Ejisu Municipality.

Twenty-one (21) journalists drawn from the Northern, Upper East and West, Brong-Ahafo and the Ashanti regions attended.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to name and shame individuals and parties to armed conflict that are "credibly suspected" of committing rape or other forms of sexual violence.

The council said it intends to use the list, to be compiled by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "for more focused United Nations engagement with those parties," including imposing targeted sanctions.