The police yesterday arrested 33 women of the Inter Party Cooperation (IPC) as it foiled a planned demonstration at the Electoral Commission headquarters on Jinja Road in Kampala.

Gambia's Assistant Superintendent of Police Yahya Fadera on Wednesday declared there will be zero tolerance for gender-based violence, in particular rape and sexual assault against women and girls, warning that perpetrators will have no place to hide.

Fadera made the declaration in Banjul on Wednesday at the opening of a training workshop for law enforcement officers on violence against women and children.

One of Senegal's leading lawyers has mediated labor strikes and defused election violence. Her name is Amsatou Sow Sidibe and Malena Amusa thinks she's a major reason why Senegal is relatively peaceful compared to neighboring Guinea.

When the Guinea massacre rocked the West Coast of Africa last September, I happened to be in the region, right next door in Senegal teaching English.

The United Nations is urging media practitioners in Liberia to play a major role in creating public awareness about gender-based violence, one of the most frequently committed serious crimes in the country, as part of a wider UN push in West Africa to increase media spotlight on sexual violence.

The socio-economic impact of the ongoing conflict and the comprehensive closure regime on the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza have been well documented. A report published by the World Bank analyzes an important, but as yet largely unexplored, dimension of this issue -- the long term impact of the system of movement and access restrictions on relations between women and men.

Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, head of the opposition Democratic Convention of African Peoples party, is Togo's first female presidential candidate. But she has withdrawn from the electoral process.

On the way out of a popular Jerusalem steakhouse last Wednesday, I was introduced to an American-Israeli named Aliza.

A member of the Israel Defense Forces public relations unit, Aliza quickly explained that she was busy hosting a dinner for some foreign journalists. "Whom of course, internally, I despise," she added apologetically, not knowing who I was.

African women under the aegis of Women Advancement for Economic and Leadership Empowerment (WAELE), has condemned the recent military coup in Niger Republic which ousted President Mamadou Tandja from office.

Fresh data on the status of women in Lebanon will be made public at conference.

The second phase of an innovative project to propel the efforts of local nonprofits working to improve the standing of women in the Middle East and North Africa region will be launched in Beirut, Lebanon today.

In the early 19th Century, Bolivian women fought alongside men for the country's independence from colonial Spain. They stormed into battle on horseback, seized cities and were on the frontline.

But their presence on the battlefield did not translate into presence in the political life of their nation. For many, their education, job opportunities and political rights were limited - until now.