Newly elected members of parliament from Western Equatoria State Legislative Assembly in Southern Sudan took part today in a one-day gender awareness workshop in the state capital Yambio.

The 48 parliamentarians were introduced to basic gender concepts, the importance of gender responsive budgeting and the importance of monitoring government programmes for gender equality and empowerment.

"Black Diamond" and her comrades may look like any bunch of street-wise girls with attitude but they have the military hardware to back up the look.

"Mortars are my favourite weapon," says the leader of a group of Liberian women rebel fighters - the Women's Artillery Commandos (WAC).

Even her enemies on the government side acknowledge her military strength.

The United Nations is dispatching a senior staff member to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as senior officials express outrage at the recent rape and assault of more than 150 civilians by rebels based in the remote and troubled east of the country.

While the use of Afghanistan and journalism in one word usually evokes negative images such as abducted reporters and war coverage, three Afghan women have taken a step to improve the media situation in Afghanistan, by setting up a Women's Journalism Center to help build female journalists' careers.

The following Security Council press statement was read out today by Council President Vitaly Churkin (Russian Federation):

The members of the Security Council expressed their outrage at the recent case of mass rape in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo allegedly perpetrated by elements of the Front Démocratique de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and Mai Mai.

Two months ago, the State Department released its 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report (TiP Report), laying out a picture of human trafficking across the globe. In it, the United States reaffirmed its commitment to ending this scourge -- and for the first time, included an evaluation of anti-trafficking measures in our own country.

Our duties, however, do not end at our borders.

The Women's Leader of the People's Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), Madam Rosalyn McCarthy has told the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation's Women's Programme hosted by Haja Kadi Johnson yesterday August 25th 2010 that “the APC has disappointed us”.

The United Nations knew Rwandan rebels were occupying villages in eastern Congo at the time the rebels raped nearly 200 women there, United Nations and aid officers said Wednesday, raising questions about why peacekeepers failed to move to protect villagers.

Members of the Working Group of the Serbian Government and the Working Team of the Ministry of Defence for drafting the National Action Plan of the Republic of Serbia for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 met today in the House of Guards at Topcider at the first in a series of planned meetings on this occasion.