Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Women miners grouped under the continental body known as the African Women in Mining Network have appealed to heads of state and government now meeting in Sirte, Libya to support them with capital and equipment. Full text...

Syrte- Libya (PANA) -- The Permanent Representatives' Committee (PRC) of the African Union on Friday approved recommendations intended to make gender equality become a reality in Africa. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) will meet from 5 to 8 July in Pretoria for the third national forum intended to assess the country's performance in respect to issues related to development in general and to women in particular. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- A group of women parliamentarians and honorary legislators in the DR Congo has formed a structure called Forum of Women Parliamentarians (FOFEPA) charged with promoting solidarity among the elected persons. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- Botswana President Festus Mogae has appointed High Court judge, Justice Athaliah Molokomme as the country's first female Attorney General. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The appointment Wednesday of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as South Africa's deputy president has received warm reception as 'a giant victory for women' across the African continent. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- An 82-year-old Cape Town grandmother is the prime suspect in a brutal and bizarre family killing. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's delegation to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) triennial World Conference in Amman, Jordan will present the country's bid to host the 2008 meeting. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's 'Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year 2005' competition has attracted a total of 75 entries this year, with the highest number of contestants being females in the tourism industry. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Zam Zam camp of internally displaced Darfurians in western Sudan is rife with rape, but, for fear of vengeance, the victims would rather suffer and bear it than put the finger on offenders. Full text...

Rwanda- Kigali (PANA) -- The First Ladies of Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Djibouti and the Queen of Swaziland, (the youngest wife of King Mswati III), are expected to begin a two-day round table here Thursday under the theme: "Women's Economic Development and the Fight against AIDS in the region". Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Uganda's proposed legislation on marital rape and equality in the family could save the lives of countless women and girls, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday in a letter to the speaker of Ugandan Parliament. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- A five-day sub-regional workshop for the training of trainers in gender-sensitive budgeting begins here Wednesday under the auspices of SURF/West and Central Africa and the UNDP. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Violent gang rape in African conflict situations has subjected many women to suffering fistula, the African Union (AU)'s Commissioner for Social Affairs, Bience Gawanas said here Monday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Society for Women Against AIDS in Africa (SWAA International) has called on the UN Security Council, governments and other stakeholders to ensure that the rights of women and girls are respected and protected in conflict situations. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- The Mauritius Family Planning Association (MFPA) Tuesday cited all political parties campaigning to contest the legislative polls on 3 July to declare clear positions on abortion in their platforms and include sex education in the school curricula, MFPA Executive Director Sangeet Jooseery said. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- A UNESCO-sponsored two-day meeting on women empowerment in the Great Lakes region begins in Addis Ababa 30 May, to develop an action plan to promote gender equality. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- While sounding a warning that Uganda faces a potential cut in assistance over the political posture of Kampala, the World Bank acknowledges that the Yoweri Museveni-led movement government has spurred Uganda to emerge as the leading sub-Saharan African nation in addressing critical linkages between economic growth and gender issues. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Nigerien women on Tuesday officially launched the World March of Women for Humanity Movement under which they will undertake a series of activities between June to October 2005. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- In a strategy to minimise the spread of HIV/AIDS infections in Uganda, the monarch of Bunyoro-Kitara Kingdom in mid-western Uganda has set an award, comprising certificates and prizes, for virgins who strictly adhere to sexual abstinence till marriage. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's upper legislative chamber, the Senate, has confirmed the appointment of Justice Aloma Mariam Muktar as the country's first female Justice of the Supreme Court. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The increased need to address gender inequalities in development projects will be the focus of a three-day conference in New Delhi being jointly organized by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Full text...

Mutsamudu- Comoros (PANA) -- Comoran vice-president Caabi Elyachroutu has congratulated the president of the autonomous island of Anjouan fore scrapping off registration fees for girls in a move to promote parity between girls and boys. Full text...

Tunis- Tunisia (PANA) -- Nearly 200 businesswomen from across the Middle East and North Africa will gather in Tunis from 24 to 26 May to take part in entrepreneurship training programmes. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal has introduced a major change in Africa by campaigning parity between men and women in manning institutions in the continental political organisation, the executive director of the Women Africa Solidarity, Bineta Diop declared here. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Gertrude Mongella, president of the Pan-African Parliament, has indicated here that African women fought beside their men to dismantle apartheid and slavery in Africa. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) deputy executive secretary Joséphine Ouédraogo Sunday urged 'successful' African women to ensure that their status in society was used to contribute to ameliorating the sufferings of rural women and those engulfed in conflicts on the continent. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Sunday urged women globally to change the world and ensure a better life for future generations. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Gertrude Mongella, president of the Pan-African Parliament, an organ of the African Union, Sunday said getting women involved in undertakings to resolve conflicts on the African continent has proven crucial in ending disputes. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) director in Senegal, Yassine Fall, Sunday called on rich creditor nations cancel the debt of poor African nations to facilitate their development and provision of basic services for the people of the continent. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The executive director of "Femmes Africa Solidarité" (FAS), Bineta Diop, Sunday said the integration of African women into peace processes was an essential ingredient for attaining lasting peace and stability on the continent. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The African continent has made important strides by applying gender equality within the African Union (AU), the executive director of the NGO, Woman Africa Solidarity (FAS), Bineta Diop, told a news conference here on Friday. Full text...

Ota- Nigeria (PANA) -- African Union chairman and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo observed here Friday that women in Africa were facing a lot of cultural and religious inhibitions that were retarding their progress. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The first edition of the African Gender Forum organised by the regional office of the Dakar-based NGO 'Femmes Africa Solidarité' will convene here 1-2 May, organisers said Wednesday. Full text...

Douala- Cameroon (PANA) -- Cameroon's Women's Voices International Festival, better known under the name of Massao, will be held on Friday in Douala. Full text...

Mogadishu- Somalia (PANA) -- Among the many things that the civil war left as scars on Somaliland are changes in the role of women. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Several groups working to empower women and girls Monday took part in an "NGO Exhibition on women and girls" at the Girl Guides headquarters in Serre Kunda, a sprawling outskirts of the Gambian capital, Banjul. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- An empowerment conference on 'Promoting the Development of African Women in Business (AWIB) opens Monday in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde under the auspices of the Private Sector Department of the African Development Bank (ADB), according to a release the bank issued at the weekend. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- Mpaga District Rural Women's Association (ASSOFERU) in southwest Gabon has won the 8th Grand Prize offered by President Omar Bongo Ondimba. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- The Gambia Chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationists (FAWEGAM) on Saturday launched a two-week programme of activities as part of their on-going campaign for policies that favoured women and girls in the country. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Ugandan women lawyers said they were ready to give the country's battered men with legal aid in their arguments against the wives who abuse them, according to a senior lawyer in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Forty women officers and enlisted soldiers from the Zambia Army, Air Force and National Service Tuesday begun a four-day workshop sponsired by the US embassy here to discuss existing challenges and explore solutions to the peculiar problems of military women. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- A group of women on Tuesday in Port Louis launched a political party dubbed Party of the Majority (PDM) whose objective is to elect many women during the next parliamentary elections in August and October. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- A group of Mauritian women has launched a platform to press for an increase in the number of women parliamentarians in the country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Press Union of Liberia president Elisabeth Hoff said here Monday that capacity-building for female journalists should be prioritised in any media development policy in Liberia. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South African President Thabo Mbeki has challenged the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to take the lead in ensuring that the country achieves goals set by the African Union on gender parity in the conduct of public affairs. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- The number of Algerian women with employment rose from 625,000 in 1996 to 1. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- About 50,000 women Tuesday marched along the 20 May Boulevard here to mark the 20th International Women's Day celebration on the theme "Equality of genders, an achievement to strengthen". Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- An official of the Kenyan education ministry Tuesday called for "clearly defined frameworks" to meet the "great challenges" facing the provision of education to the girl-child in Africa. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The second Gauteng Women's dialogue organised to coincide with International Women's Day began Tuesday with provincial Prime Minister Mbhazima Shilowa highlighting areas needing concrete action. Full text...