India's radical Hindu nationalist party governing Mumbai has handed out kitchen knives and chili powder to women following a gang rape in the capital New Delhi that ignited a national debate on the best way to tackle sex crimes.

The Shiv Sena party, an ally of the main opposition BJP, said it had handed out 21,000 knives with three-inch blades to women in the city and surrounding areas and plans to distribute 100,000.

Rwanda President Paul Kagame has spoken out on the importance of women leadership, accountability for commitments to women empowerment and the need to accelerate the momentum towards greater inclusion and fairness.

While parliamentarians discuss a new electoral law to govern the 2013 parliamentary elections, women politicians are seeking stronger presence in the country's legislature.

Lebanon signed the Beijing agreement in 1995, which stipulated a female quota of no less than 30% but this has yet to be implemented in parliamentary elections.

BAMAKO // Rebels who had conquered northern Mali offered to pay the equivalent of $14 for a 13-year-old girl. When her family said no, they took her anyway.

A week later, she died in captivity, after she was repeatedly raped by a group of armed men.

On the day the French came and the Islamists left, Hawi Traore folded up her veil and tied on a vibrantly colored wraparound dress. On the next day, she wore heels. On the day after, she got her hair braided and slipped on sparkly earrings.

Women and children play a major role in poverty alleviation and are expected to feature prominently in any future development goals, it emerged during debates in Liberia this week.

1 Billion Rising campaign states, "One in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime".

Zimbabwe may become the world's first country to pass a law requiring that women hold at least 50 percent of posts in parliament and other government bodies, according to a new constitution.

Concerned over the stand-off in the implementation of the different political and socio- economic agreements that were signed between the two countries, a coalition of women leaders in Sudan and South Sudan has decided to come together to promote peace for the benefit of the citizens of the two neighboring states.

Bangladesh has won second place in an annual United Nations Development Programme competition, with a story that highlights the success of the country's poverty alleviation efforts.

The story had a specific focus on the contributions that destitute women made in the economic sphere, said a press release of the UNDP Dhaka office issued on Wednesday.