NATO's new strategy in Afghanistan is part military offensive, part training the Afghan security forces, part fostering civil society and part talking with at least some members of the Taliban, to entice them to join the government side. But, talking to the Taliban has some Afghan women worried.

For women in Iraq, the coming national elections offer both a promise and a reminder of the difficulty of change in this male-dominated culture.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to young women at a Saudi women's college here on Tuesday, the site of a spirited exchange five years ago with a female official of the Bush administration over the rights of women in Saudi Arabia.

Violence, including human rights violations, has been increasing in Mexico, and women's rights have suffered blow after blow, but 2009 ended with steps towards justice: on December 10 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) issued a judgment in the "cotton field" case against the government of Mexico for violations of human rights. This judgment represents clear progress in the midst of so many legal reversals.

In what appeared to be the first burst of activism in months not related to the disputed presidential election, about 1,200 Iranians signed a statement against a bill that would further curb women's rights, the feminist Web site Change for Gender Equality reported.

Iraqi security forces have arrested an Al Qaeda operative suspected of recruiting women to carry out suicide attacks, the U.S. military and Iraqi security officials said Saturday.

Mohammed Shaker Mahmoud, 30, was detained Thursday evening at his home in the former al Qaeda stronghold of Al-Mukhaissah village in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, an Iraqi military official said on condition of anonymity.

After two decades of war during which thousands of children were used as child soldiers and many women raped, northern Uganda's recovery plan is to be spent on building roads rather than helping the country's most vulnerable.

Civil society and women parliamentarians are not happy with the government and donors, as there are no concrete measures to meet gender-related concerns over the recovery plan for Northern Uganda.

Women and children are being increasingly targeted in the escalating attacks against communities in Southern Sudanese states, exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation, say officials.

Amnesty International called on the United Nations to put in place measures for the protection of human rights and the most vulnerable among the survivors of Tuesday's devastating earthquake.

Sudanese police rounded up about 40 women protesters Monday outside a courthouse where they were showing support for a female journalist on trial for wearing trousers in public.

Some of the women protesters were wearing pants themselves.