Whatever else happens after this year's election, it is clear that one thing is certain not to change—namely, the extremely limited role of women in Burmese politics.

Leaders of the Democratic Party (Myanmar), Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, left, Thu Wai, center, and Nay Yee Ba Swe at a press conference at the party's head office in Rangoon on Aug. 22.

For the second time in the past several months, a group of about 25 Israeli women successfully smuggled 23 Palestinian women and 7 children from the West Bank into Israel in defiance of Israeli law. The Israeli women met the Palestinian women at their homes in the West Bank, and drove them through the checkpoints into Israel, evading Israeli security.

Women now have their own “pink team” at the Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System.

A clinic to meet the specific health-care needs of women opened in March on the second floor of Building 98. The various departments at the VA have patient-friendly color codes; the new Women Veterans Health Care is the pink team.

Just days before the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) summit, Andrew Mitchell, the UK's International Development Secretary, announced a change in direction, putting women and children at the centre of its aid policy. This shift will double the number of female and newborn lives saved by 2015, Mitchell will tell the assembled heads of state in New York on 20-22 September.

The Principal Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Côte d'Ivoire, Abou Moussa, will attend the 19th meeting of UN peacekeeping missions in West Africa on Wednesday, 29 September in Dakar.

Victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo have begun telling a high-level UN panel about their experiences as part of efforts to improve treatment and support.

The hearings began on Thursday in the troubled eastern region of South Kivu.

The panel will travel to provinces throughout the DRC.

The United Nations initiative to boost the number of female police officers deployed in peacekeeping missions around the globe has made real progress since it was launched a year ago, according to the world body"s top police official.

But the 26-year-old Honaryar has an additional goal: the Sikh activist aims to become the first non-Muslim woman to gain a parliamentary seat in voting on September 18.

Speaking to Miss Harriette K. Sillah the female who was endorsed by Parliament as women's representative in the National Youth Commission, she was very excited while expressing her views to this press. “I felt highly esteemed as the only female amongst nine (9) men that have been approved by the House of Parliament.”

Astamaya Tami, 55, is part of a ragtag army of women who have turned Nepal into an against-all-odds success story when it comes to saving lives of expectant mothers, hundreds of thousands of whom die unnecessarily every year across the globe.