The Democratic Republic of Congo has promised to bring a group of suspected mass rapists to justice after the United Nations last month threatened to halt support to two Congolese army battalions, the world body said on Tuesday.

The United Nations said 126 women were raped in Minova in November after Congolese troops fled to the town as so-called M23 rebels briefly captured the nearby provincial capital of Goma.

IOM Peru and the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations this week signed a cooperation agreement that will allow for increased cooperation in projects aimed at protecting the human rights of vulnerable populations, including migrants, displaced persons, victims of human trafficking and armed conflict, and to respond to emergencies.

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday announced her candidacy in presidential elections to be held on November 17. The country's first female leader, who governed from 2006 to 2010, is widely tipped as favourite to win the race.

Popular former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet announced late Wednesday that she is running in November 17 election.

The Solomon Islands, a developing island nation in the south-west Pacific Islands, has one of the highest urbanisation rates in the region, and the basic service infrastructure is struggling to cater for the influx of people from the provinces to the capital, Honiara. Thirty-five percent of the city's population, who live in informal settlements, are facing the health consequences of a dire shortage of clean water and sanitation.

Gaza's Hamas-controlled parliament has passed a law requiring separate classes for boys and girls in public and private schools from the fourth grade.

Osama Mazini, the Hamas education minister, said on Monday that the law which was issued on February 10, was approved by the Palestinian group's legislative council and went into effect on Sunday.

After the publication of an article in The New York Times on Monday about an Afghan man who had agreed to give his 6-year-old daughter in marriage to pay off his debt to another man, the father called The Times and said the debt had been paid nearly a month ago by an anonymous donor.

As the shadows lengthened around her family's hut here in one of Kabul's sprawling refugee camps, a slight 6-year-old girl ran in to where her father huddled with a group of elders near a rusty wood stove. Her father, Taj Mohammad, looked away, his face glum.

“She does not know what is going to happen,” he said softly.

Angola's National Defence minister, Cândido Van-Dúnem, on Thursday here praised the determination and role played by women in face of the difficulties of life, especially Angolan women, who have given their best to the promotion of unity and wellbeing of the family and society.

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve the first-ever treaty to regulate the enormous global trade in conventional weapons, for the first time linking sales to the human-rights records of the buyers.

The UN General Assembly has adopted a historic treaty to control the trade in conventional arms, voting it through by a huge majority.

Member-states voted by 154 votes to three, with 23 abstentions, to control a trade worth $70bn (£46bn) annually.

The treaty went to a vote after Syria, Iran and North Korea blocked its adoption by consensus.