A meeting of the United Nations committee on the elimination of discrimination against women opened in New York today to look into the situation of women in eight countries, including Papua New Guinea, which will be reviewed for the first time, and India, which will be examined on an exceptional basis.

Yesterday marked one half year since an earthquake flattened Port-au-Prince. The women of Haiti are still lost in the wreckage.

The human rights of women in post-quake Haiti have been a barometer of injustice in the international response to the crisis: activists say poverty, sexual violence and political disenfranchisement have created a second wave of disaster.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned deportation orders for a Guatemalan woman who had asked for asylum because she feared to be returned to her own country due to its high murder rate for women.

In the ruling issued Monday by the San Francisco-based court, Judge Richard A. Paez decided that the case must be reviewed by the Board of Immigration Appeals, the highest entity enforcing U.S. immigration laws.

An appeals court ruling has raised the possibility that Guatemalan women will be able to seek asylum in the United States because of the high rates of femicide in that country.

A Guatemalan woman seeking asylum based on her belief that she would not be safe in her native country will have her case reviewed, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

Grace Lagulu was only 15 years old when she was abducted by the Lords Resistance Army, LRA, in 1987. She was forced to become a sex slave and bore two sons by a rebel commander who is now dead.

“I was an orphan,” she said. “I was abducted along with my brother, who was later killed in captivity. I was severely beaten.”

Washington, Jul 13 (EFE).- The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned deportation orders for a Guatemalan woman who had asked for asylum because she feared to be returned to her own country due to its high murder rate for women. In the ruling issued Monday by the San Francisco-based court, Judge Richard A. Paez decided that the case must be reviewed by the Board of Immigration Appeals, the highest entity enforcing U.S.

Afghan women and girls fear they will pay the price for any deal to end the insurgency cut by President Hamid Karzai with the Taliban, a rights group said on Tuesday, pleading for safeguards of hard-won freedoms.

The United States on Monday confirmed media reports about Afghan President Hamid Karzai's moves to get 50 Taliban leaders from the al-Qaida Taliban sanctions list of the United Nations Security Council.

The U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley cautiously told journalists, “I would be careful about putting a particular number on this.”

A UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women has begun a review of the situation of women in India and seven other countries. During its 19-day session, India will be reviewed on an exceptional basis, with the committee considering the country's follow-up report on the impact of the 2002 Gujarat massacres on women, the rld body said.

Women who oppose Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe are suffering increasing violence and repression, a study says.

Amnesty International claims that female demonstrators can be subjected to arbitrary arrest, beatings and in some cases torture in police custody.

The human rights group, which interviewed dozens of activists, urged the country's authorities to "stamp out any discrimination against women".