A United States federal court ruling this week could unleash a wave of political asylum claims from applicants who say being a woman from Central America is reason enough to fear for their lives.

The ruling concerns an application by a Guatemalan woman, but activists say hundreds of thousands of women from throughout the region could use it to argue that the United States should let them immigrate.

“Taking lessons from women's peacemaking initiatives that have transformed Liberia, Rwanda and Uganda, women from other parts of Africa are taking on more and more leadership.”

More and more people are becoming aware of the plight of child soldiers through the books (often memoirs) and films (often documentaries) that have hit the market in the past few years. Particularly in Africa, boys are recruited to fight in civil conflicts, so young they can barely carry the guns they are issued.

"Following the bomb attacks in Kampala on July 11, 2010 where over 70 people lost lives and many more were injured, we the women of Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, gathered in Kampala and discussing peace and security in the Eastern African Sub-region, wish to express heartfelt condolences to the families that have lost their loved ones in this tragedy.

Rutendo Munengani, wife of MDC-T legislator for Glen View North Fani Munengami, says she will never forgive President Robert Mugabe after she was raped by a soldier while her nine-month old son watched in horror.

Mugabe, who is the commander-in-chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), has always used the security services whenever he feels cornered in his three-decade-long rule.

Nearly a third of candidates in Angola's upcoming parliamentary elections are female, thanks to a new quota imposed by the government. The 30 percent rule was designed to bring more women into the country's parliament, but as campaigning gets under way, women continue to stay in Angola's political shadows, barely visible at rallies and with few holding senior party positions.

Things have changed in this region of southeastern Madagascar since Moana Essa Raseta became the first woman governor here in 2005.

Lack of donor funding has forced the United Nations to cut back on its humanitarian efforts in Iraq, with its food aid agency halting distributions to hundreds of thousands of women and children in the conflict-ridden country. We appeal to donors not to give up on their commitment to the Iraqi people and to help pave the way for Iraq's future development," said Christine McNab, humanitarian coordinator for Iraq.

Syria has forbidden the country's students and teachers from wearing the niqab -- the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman's eyes -- taking aim at a garment many see as political. The ban shows a rare point of agreement between Syria's secular, authoritarian government and the democracies of Europe: Both view the niqab as a potentially destabilizing threat.

The New Zealand Parliamentarians' group on Population and Development (NZPPD) welcomes the news that 18 women will be contesting the 4th August elections in the Solomon Islands.