The United Nations is very impressed with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's (Unifil) Malaysia (Malcon) East contingent and has increased the Malaysian peacekeeping unit's scope of duties, said Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) chief Gen Tan Sri Azizan Ariffin.

Amid the controversy over the Islamic cultural center in NYC and Pastor Terry Jones' threats of burning the Quran in Florida, a recent Pew Research Center poll revealed that 42 percent of Americans believe Islam encourages violence while 55 percent admit that they do not know very much about Islam.

Neither the commissioner for human rights nor the police in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya have received any reports about attacks on women not wearing headscarves, a spokesman for the commissioner's office said.

GROZNY — Armed guards barred women without headscarves from festivities in Chechnya marking a new holiday — to honor women.

Chechen women said the holiday, established by President Ramzan Kadyrov a year ago, was tarnished by rules that he had previously imposed, restricting their rights by enforcing traditional Muslim customs in the volatile region.

The Mindanao Peoples' Caucus (MPC), a Davao City-based peace advocacy group, considered Monday's launching of the women contingent in the Civilian Protection Component (CPC) of Malaysia-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) a breakthrough.

This is also a first time that Bangsamoro women, lumad women and Christian settlers joined their efforts, regardless of race and religion, to protect peace in Mindanao.

The UN Police Adviser, Ann-Marie Orler, said that the organization's initiative to boost the number of female police officers deployed in peacekeeping missions around the globe was recording 'significant' progress. The Pan African News Agency (PANA) recalled that the initiative, tagged: 'Global Effort was launched in August, last year.'

Sri Lanka is seeking foreign help to care for nearly 90,000 women who have been widowed due to the island's Tamil separatist war which ended last year, a minister said Wednesday.

Child Development and Women's Affairs Minister M. L. A. M. Hizbullah told reporters some 12,000 war widows were below the age of 40. Around 8,000 widows have three or more children to care for.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for concerted efforts among South Asian countries to address the challenges of establishing women's rights in all spheres of life.

She made the call while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 7th South Asian regional conference on women rights at Hotel Sheraton in the city yesterday morning.

More than 50 representatives gathered yesterday in El Geneina, West Darfur, to discuss women's rights in the Darfur state. The event marked the third and final in a series of Darfur-wide forums on UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. The occasion was led by the Wali's (Governor's) Advisor for Women and Children, with assistance from UNAMID.

t's Saturday and the women hurry into the cooperative's warehouse in this rural town in southeastern Peru with huge bags of coffee beans on their backs. Some come on their own, others are accompanied by their husbands or children. But they have all hiked long distances from their farms in the mountains where they grow some of the world's top organic specialty coffee.