As the official campaign season kicked off for national Kyrgyz elections on September 10, 29 parties were officially in the running for seats in the country's parliament.

Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary elections have traditionally been among the most eventful in Central Asia, and the recent ousting of Kurmanbek Bakiev as president and deadly ethnic violence in June suggest this poll could eclipse its predecessors.

With one-fifth of a nation under water and sluggish donations to fund relief efforts for flood victims, there is a fragile element within a drowning, disenfranchised population, a group that has historically and categorically been cast as a lower-grade victim in times of disasters – women.

Cambodian authorities must take sweeping measures to boost the number of women who sit in parliament if the country is to meet a key part of its global commitment to gender equality, advocates say.

The capital of Mogadishu, Somalia has been the scene of ongoing clashes between Government troops and Islamist Militant groups, including Al-Shabaab. Violence in the city has led to some 3,000 casualties this year and uprooted around 200,000 people. The fighting is far from over and the situation is critical for those who remain in the capital.

President Benigno S. Aquino III received from Socio Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga, Jr. the fourth Progress Report on the Philippines' compliance to the United Nations Millenium Development Goals during ceremonies held at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City Wednesday morning.

Interview with Dr. Massouda Jalal, former Afghan Minister for Women's Affairs.

Fawzya Gailani says her husband beat her when she won a seat in Afghanistan's parliament.
He was jealous that she won more than 14,000 votes in the country's first parliamentary election in 2005, while he only polled 160.

A decade after the United Nations Security Council demanded for the first time that sexual violence in conflict had to stop, a top UN peacekeeping official was in the council chamber this week trying to explain, again, how it was that hundreds of women, and children as young as 7, had been raped this summer within reach of peacekeeping troops in the lawless eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, now an epicenter of misery and abuse.

Some of Somali women groups in Banaadir Region are blaming Prime Minister Umar Abdirashid Sharmarke to be behind civilian harassment including constant shelling in Mogadishu Bakaaraha Market. Our correspondent Isma'il Tifow Hassan has the details.

The tide is beginning to turn in the world social order. Traditional family roles are changing as democratic notions creep into the social system. Earlier, it was assumed to be written that the man was the provider in the family and the woman the homemaker. In Nepal, while a majority of the women may still be fighting against the old order, some have definitely seen the light at the end of the tunnel.