This was in response to the request of United Nation (UN) Women Executive Director, Ms Michelle Bachelet ,that barrier against women participation in government be removed by Nigerian authorities.

Democratic Senator Bob Casey and a handful of other senators met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington, D.C., to discuss the upcoming 2014 election and women's rights in the war-laden country.

With Somalia's UN-backed government consolidating its hold over the capital, Mogadishu, and other areas from al-Qaeda-linked militants, many women are returning to help rebuild the country, reports the BBC's Kate Forbes.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this Air Africa flight to Mogadishu," the Kenyan stewardess booms over the plane tannoy.

A women's unit is being created for Iran's riot police, Brigadier General Hassan Karami told the country's semi-official Mehr News agency.

Karami said the new contingent has received approval and “the missions for the female unit in the Riot Police have been defined according to operations in investigation, in-action, arrest, transport, and interrogation sections," according to Mehr.

Mahasa sits in the dust outside the hut she built herself, holding her youngest son in her arms.

The 29-year-old mother of four knows how vulnerable she is. "I'm scared," she said.

A Somali freelance journalist has been detained without charge since 10 January after interviewing a woman who says she was raped by state security forces. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that Abdiaziz Abdinur was summoned by the Central Investigations Department (CID) last Thursday, in connection with the interview he conducted with the woman.

The Secretary General detailed the Alliance's efforts over the past year to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 in its operations and activities in his second annual report on this issue, which was released on Tuesday 15 January. Adopted in 2000, the Resolution recognizes the disproportionate effect of armed conflict on women and children.

One month after U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act, it is clear that Russo-American relations have entered a difficult period.

But the dispute over Moscow's adoption ban might mark only the beginning of the difficulties Obama is facing with the Kremlin in his second term, which officially starts with Monday's inauguration ceremony.

Mariam Cisse sits on a wooden bench with her arm wrapped in a sling, her sad eyes cast downward and her voice low. She's wracked with guilt over leaving her five children behind with relatives in the desert town of Timbuktu, occupied by al-Qaeda linked militants, while she sought medical treatment in the country's southern capital, Bamako.

The appointment of Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Somalia was a bold step by the fledgling government.