Mankind first settled in what is now South Africa more than 100,000 years ago. A product of our wandering ways and curious nature that spread the species through Europe, Asia, and the America's, the settling of the South represented our ability to conquer virtually any terrain. Fighting prehistoric predators cave paintings

Before the start of their 2006 World Cup semi-final, players for Brazil and France stood together and held a banner declaring "Say no to racism". The gesture was part of a Fifa campaign – each of the 64 matches included a visible statement against the racist abuse directed especially at black players in Europe.

Since 2002, the International Women's Peace Service in Palestine (IWPS-Palestine) has been documenting and non-violently intervening in human rights abuses carried out by the Israeli military and Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank against the Palestinian civilian population.

Caritas is highlighting the plight of three million women in long-term refugee crises on World Refugee Day, 20 June.

Women refugees are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses in cases where they have been forced to leave their homes for long-standing periods. Caritas says the international community can do better in protecting them from violence.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, where a Platform for Action was adopted by the United States and 188 other countries.

She may have been little-known in political circles until now, but by putting herself forward as the first female independent presidential candidate, Luisete Macedo Araújo (50) has thrust herself into the limelight.

Araújo is the first Angolan woman to set her sights on the country's top job, held for the last 30 years by the same man, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

Three girls from the UNRWA School at Askar Camp in Nablus have made history by becoming the first Palestinians to win an award at the world's premier youth science competition. Aseel Abu Aleil, Aseel Alshaar and Noor Alarada were competing with 1500 finalists from around the world.

They picked up a "special award in applied electronics" at the Intel Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, California.

Women's political participation in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia is to be enhanced under a new United Nations-backed project launched today for an innovative website to provide them access to information, the exchange of experiences, ideas and good practices.

I come from a country where discrimination against women, and as a result domestic violence, has always been the norm rather than the exception—part of our culture and tradition in Zimbabwe. In the village where I come from, it was normal that girl children would not go to school while boys would go to school.

“I'm going to get my votes!” cried Mu Sochua as she stepped into a slender rowboat, holding one side for balance. “One by one.”

She was crossing a small river here in southern Cambodia on a recent stop in her never-ending campaign for re-election to Parliament, introducing herself to rural constituents who may never have seen her face.