After 18 months in camps, many of the families displaced by conflict in Eastern Congo are keen to go home and restart their lives. WFP Executive Director Josette recently visited Katsiru in North Kivu and found that, while some are held back by fears over security, others are taking the risk. In either case, WFP is helping.

Women activists from across Africa have gathered at a women's conference in Entebbe, Uganda, to demand that African Union (AU) heads of state consider gender equality when choosing representatives at all levels of AU structures. The female African activists raised concerns that there were very few women representatives within AU structures which made it harder to push gender-related issues.

In spite of advances, discrimination against women persists in laws and in practice. Many women suffer numerous forms of discrimination and limited access to rights, resources and opportunities. This is a moment to celebrate but, simultaneously, a time to mourn for women. Celebrate, for finding a better place and entity in the bureaucratic system of the UN.

Amidst the disarray following General McChrystal's interview with Rolling Stone, a much less reported but profound event marked the course of the insurgency in Afghanistan. The recent female suicide operation in eastern Afghanistan reveals not only a paradigm shift in Taliban insurgent tactics, but also a mutation of the organization's founding ideology.

Amidst the disarray following General McChrystal's interview with Rolling Stone, a much less reported but profound event marked the course of the insurgency in Afghanistan. The recent female suicide operation in eastern Afghanistan reveals not only a paradigm shift in Taliban insurgent tactics, but also a mutation of the organization's founding ideology.

THIS IS not about the debate on purloined text and footnotes that found their way into a Supreme Court decision, and that has been picked up by bloggers abroad and by Prof. Evan Criddle, one of the affected authors who lamented that his writing had been lifted out of context to produce an opposite conclusion.

The United States' long delay in ratifying the global women's rights treaty undermines fulfillment of the US commitment to women's rights at home and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today.

“President Bachelet is widely acknowledged to be one of Latin America's most accomplished and popular heads of state,” said Ambassador Carla A. Hills, the US Co-Chair of the Inter-American Dialogue and former US trade representative.

“She will bring to the Dialogue both credibility and fresh thinking. I very much look forward to working with her in pursuit of a common agenda,” Hills said.

A female political prisoner in Kachin state's Putao prison was beaten up by prison guards when she tried to stop them from beating up two other inmates.

A lifetime of frustration in politics in Myanmar has not tired Ms Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein. Neither have the years as a political prisoner blunted her sense of humour.

"Some people call us the 'three princesses of Myanmar', but to the government, we are the three witches," she laughed. The "princesses" - Ms Cho, Ms Nay Ye Ba Swe, and Ms Mya Than Than Nu - are too old for fairy tales, she says.