Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The National Ports Authority of South Africa (NPA) made history early this week when an ocean- going vessel was successfully piloted and docked by an all female crew in Durban. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Two Kenyan men, a father and a suitor, have been imprisoned for four years for detaining a 12-year-old girl and trying to forcefully give her out in marriage. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- In a landmark case, a two-year-old girl has gone to the Kenyan high court to sue the government over her rights, a local daily reported Tuesday. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- About 63 percent of women in Benin have a low level of schooling as compared to 40 percent of men in the country, the national institute of statistics and economic analysis (INSAE) says in a demographic and health survey covering 2001. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan women are chanting their way into dens, seizing and spilling locally made but highly toxic brews, in a desperate bid to keep their sons and husbands off the lethal booze sold cheap in every nook and cranny. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- The 16 women elected into Cameroon's 180-strong National Assembly at the parliamentary polls of 30 June have stated their determination to ensure better living conditions for especially the rural woman. Full text...

Khartoum- Sudan(PANA) -- Twenty-five Sudanese civil society organizations have joined forces to fight female genital mutilation (FGM) in the country. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Women represent only 10 percent of candidates in Cameroon's 23 June parliamentary and local elections, following the publication of the lists of the different political parties. Full text...

Mbabane- Swaziland (PANA) -- The Swazi government has launched an investigation into allegations that some lawyers, as well as Court and police officials were demanding sexual gratification from widows seeking to claim the estates of their late husbands. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The Malian Solidarity League of Imams and Islamic Scholars (LIMAMA) has attacked two government bills proscribing the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Mali, sources in Bamako indicated Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Women in Kenya's Lake Victoria region who derive their livelihood from fishing activities have come up with a novel project to educate and empower their ranks. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- A Dakar-based media research institution has described the future of female journalists in Liberia as "grim". Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- A Beninese Islamic scholar, Afize Ambekema has called on Muslims to deliver women from practices that are harmful to their integrity, and violate her rights. Full text...

Manzini- Swaziland (PANA) -- A growing number of men in Swaziland are reporting what a local anti-abuse organisation in the tiny kingdom described as "excessive" abuse by their wives. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya is still very far from achieving total gender parity and justice, indicates a report released by the country's chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya). Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- South African ambassador to France Thuthukile Skweyiya has hailed the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) for acknowledging the role of women in the socio-economic development of the continent. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Newspapers in Kenya have taken a swipe at a marital law they consider out-dated and "presumptuous over matters of the heart," after a judge dismissed a perplexing case in which a woman sought to have her husband jailed for "fraudulently living and having sex with her. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Benin's ministry of Family, Social Welfare and Solidarity has launched a pamphlet sensitising the public against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Despite outnumbering men among the worlds' population, women constitute the bigger bulk of the poor, and have a disproportionately low access to information communication technologies (ICTs). Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Benin has issued a strong warning to practitioners of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the country to stop the practice immediately. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Women are the prime victims of violence and abuse in Nairobi and their plight is an indication of the level of insecurity in the city and in most African capitals, according to UN agencies' survey report released in the Kenyan capital Thursday. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- The vitality shown by women participants in the Cairo Trade Fair unquestionably illustrates the determination of African women to henceforth occupy their rightful place in moulding the "future of Africa. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Governments have the responsibility of providing basic education for all, says a joint statement issued Friday by heads of five specialised agencies of the United Nations. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Authorities in Kenya have ordered the arrest of members of a ragtag militant sect believed to be behind a wave of threats against uncircumcised women. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Cameroon's female lawyers have set up an association named Female Lawyers, Le Messager newspaper reported Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A Kenyan centre for human rights and democracy said Monday it would take legal action to stop the circumcision of 16 girls who last week ran away from their homes in the northern rift valley district of Marakwet. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The South African government and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have signed an agreement mandating UNICEF to continue helping the country to improve the situation of children and women in South Africa. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The 2002-2006 five-year programme adopted by the Forum of Women Educators in Africa (FAWE) gives priority to girls' education in the continent, according to FAWE programme director Marema Dioum. Full text...

Lome- Togo (PANA) -- The European Union (EU) has granted 560 million CFA francs to the regional office of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), the EU delegate in Togo said in a statement. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- The association for progress and defence of Women's rights (APDF) in Mali are demanding political parties to ensure that at least one-third of their parliamentary and local government candidates in the forthcoming elections are women. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- The Botswana government will regulate the minimum wage payable to domestic workers, the majority of whom are women, under a revised rural development policy geared towards poverty alleviation. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- French politician Josiane Beregovoy of the Green party has urged women in Africa to play a more assertive role in the continent's democratisation, given their demographic weight. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- An ex-army officer lost his wife because she found it unbearable for her spouse's habit of demanding and having forceful sex with her. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- Democracy in Egypt will take root the day Egyptians start upholding democratic practices in the family, Farkhonda Hassan, secretary-general of the National Council for Women, has said. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Uganda's Vice President Dr. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Seven Zambian women miners have successfully won jobs as heavy-duty drivers at the Nchanga open pit, which was previously reserved for men. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzania is one of four Anglophone countries picked by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to implement its good practice interventions to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of children, officials said Thursday. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The Norwegian government was actively engaged in supporting programmes for girl-child education in Africa through on-going programmes it funded for UNICEF to implement. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- President Omar Bongo has urged women in Gabon to form organisations through which they can collectively enhance their status and well-being. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- On the occasion of International Women's Day commemorated at the weekend, outgoing World Food Programme (WFP) executive director Catherine Bertini reiterated the crucial role women stand to play in the global fight against hunger. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Ugandan women activists have blamed cultural and traditional inequalities for the escalating domestic violence in the country. Full text...

Conakry- Guinea (PANA) -- Guinean female computer expert, Barry Nancy Ba, has condemned early marriage still practised by her Peul ethnic group. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegalese Minister for Trade, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Aïcha Agne Pouye, has deplored the difficulties women encounter in obtaining bank loans in the country "Women have no access to bank credit because the financial institutions require them to provide guarantees which they cannot afford. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- This Algerian woman, Djamila, 36, known as "Jimmy", has been a taxi driver in Algiers for the past five years. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Olive, in her thirties, is a single-parent teacher in one of Yaounde's High Schools. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Disturbed by reports of forced marriages, mainly within the immigrant Maghreb and African communities, the French ministry of National Education hinted on the occasion of this year's International Women's Day that it was embarking on a sensitisation campaign against the practice. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- As the world marked the International Women's Day, Badra Amamra, a former freedom fighter and first woman to be elected into the Political Bureau of Algeria's National Liberation Front (FLN), has renewed her determination to improve the lot of women in the male-dominated society. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The inclusion of cultural considerations in strategies at containing the spread of HIV/AIDS, especially social biases against women, is crucial if the war against the pandemic is to be won. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- Siti Rahou, 28, who is Algeria's first female football referee having played in the country's first female team, is a role model in her career. Full text...

Lome- Togo (PANA) -- Togolese Workers Unions' Confederation organised a function Friday in Lome, to sensitise women in the country on their rights and protection. Full text...