Letitia A. Long became the first woman director of a major U.S. intelligence agency Monday, taking her post as chief of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at a ceremony at the agency's half-built, high-tech campus in Springfield, Va. Long saluted what the relatively new agency has accomplished, from aiding troops on the battlefield, to helping draw together intelligence from across the national security spectrum.

At the 15th African Union Summit held in Kampala from 19-27 July, Isis WICCE joined several civil society organizations in Africa to put up activities to inform the Heads of State to bring the issues of women to the discussion table. In collaboration with Femmes Africa Solidarite (FAS) through a program called Gender is my Agenda (GIMAC), Isis-WICCE held a pre-summit consultative meeting on strengthening gender in the African Union.

Fistula is the name given to a hole between the bladder and vagina, or rectum and vagina, or both. This is what happens to the young girls of the developing world in countries such as Uganda when they suffer prolonged, unassisted, difficult labour and delivery in circumstances of poverty, malnutrition, isolation and ignorance.

UNIFEM and its partner organization, the Women's Information Center, have organized a series of meetings in cooperation with local authorities and government bodies in Georgia, to facilitate the delivery of effective assistance to internally displaced and conflict-affected women and their families.

In commemorating August 9 - National Women's Day - the African National Congress (ANC) pays tribute to countless sung and unsung heroines of our struggle for their contribution in the liberation of South Africa.

The mere recognition of women's rights is not enough, President Jacob Zuma said on Monday.

"The laws in our statute books are not enough. They will become truly meaningful when they create a tangible improvement in the lives of women," he told a National Women's Day celebration in East London.

The female Palestinian prisoners of Al-Damon prison have called on the International Red Cross to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to close the "the worst jail ever," as they "experience tragic conditions in Al-Damon."

Last week, the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, told a Nigerian woman she cannot apply for her children without a letter from the children's father, and kindly offered to issue the documents as soon as the paternal endorsement is received.

Human rights activists in Egypt have expressed concern following allegations that a woman was raped by two police officers.

She took the unusual step of appearing on television to give an interview about her ordeal.

The woman claims that the rape took place on a deserted rural road in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.

She said that police have opened an investigation after she reported it.

EDUCATION was recognised as a key element of female emancipation at the inaugural Women's Legacy Dialogue, an event that was "aimed at changing how women think".