As the dark-grey rain clouds gather and another late afternoon monsoon downpour threatens to unleash itself on the city below, Moon Nay Li is busy preparing the latest report from the Kachin Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT). It details the plight of more than 90,000 people recently displaced by conflict in northern Burma and their urgent need for aid.

The draft proposal of a new constitution for Egypt, has caused fiery protests from civil society and women's organizations in the country. Last week several hundred people demonstrated in Cairo against the absence of women in the process and against the new Article 36, stating that women's equal rights should be ensured ”without violation of the rules of Islamic jurisprudence”.

In addition to the 123 heads of state who will meet for the Sept. 25-Oct. 1 annual gathering of U.N. members starting here today, hundreds of activists and observers will also be on hand to hold their own parallel discussions and forums.

Nearly two years after the start of Arab Spring uprisings, Arab women are facing the reality that toppling dictators was only the beginning of their fight for freedom and equality. Barbara Slavin reports from a recent conference, during which a group of young Arab women activists discussed and debated these challenges.

Egyptians have finally spoken out regarding the attacks by Salafist Islamist preacher Abdullah Badr against female Egyptian artists.

As the last of this year's Nobel Prize winners are announced and media focus shifts away from Sweden, two things are clear about the winners.

One: They have all done laudatory work in their respective fields.

Two: Aside from the European Union, which was awarded the Peace Prize, all of this year's Nobel laureates are men.

A group of international leaders, known as The Elders, on Wednesday joined forces with the US secretary of state and UN agencies in the battle against the practice of child marriage.

In an interview to mark the first ever "International Day of the Girl Child", the chairman of The Elders said the practice had a critical impact on health, education, poverty and human rights.

Human rights activists in Iran are subjected to beatings with batons, mock hangings, rape, sleep deprivation, and threats that family members will be raped or killed, a U.N. rights investigator said in a report released on Thursday.

On Monday, October 15, the government and FARC negotiators will sit down in Oslo to begin the next phase of the Colombian peace talks. Next Wednesday, they are expected to hold a joint press conference, after which the talks will move to Havana, Cuba, where negotiators will resume discussions the following week.

The aid plans were launched earlier this year by Norway, the World Bank, European Union, United Kingdom, United Nations and Australia.

Norway's ambassador refutes that notion and says the funds goal is a lasting peace, according to an article on the Voice of America website on Thursday.