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...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambian women joined the rest of their gender the world over Tuesday to observe International Women's Day, marked here by marches and speeches articulating their causes. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Efforts to ensure women's control over food often add to an already heavy burden of responsibility, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has concluded from its worldwide experience. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) based in Banjul, Gambia has urged member states to rapidly sign and ratify the additional protocol of the charter on the rights of women. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali on Monday paid glowing tribute to rural and urban women for the key role they continue to play in national development. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has pardoned 72 female prisoners, the State House announced in Algiers Monday. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Hundreds of women from Gauteng province will converge in Benoni, Ekurhuleni, outside Johannesburg 8-9 March to develop multi-stakeholder programmes on issues affecting women in the province. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- Female journalists from four African countries convene here 7-11 March for a training session to sharpen their professional skills, organisers said Friday. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Family and Women's Affairs minister Suzanne Mbomback launched a week of activities Tuesday in Nanga Eboko, about 170 km east of Yaounde, in the countdown to the celebration of year's International Women's Day in Cameroon under the theme "gender equality, gains to consolidate". Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is leading the South African delegation to the 49th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women scheduled for 28 February to 11 March in New York. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritian Women's Rights Minister Arianne Navarre-Marie on Friday called on fellow women on the island nation to get involved in "active politics" because the country needed their talent. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- The lives of women and girls around the world have, on average, improved in the last 10 years, due in part to concerted action by the international community and national governments, according to a World Bank report released Thursday. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Addis Ababa residents will celebrate this year's International Women's Day under the "Stop Violence against Women" banner, giving support to a women-only five-kilometre race. Full text...

Algiers- Algeria (PANA) -- Violence against women in Algeria is assuming worrying proportions, according to a national survey spearheaded by the 'violence against women' committee of the Public Health National Institute (INSP). Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Ochillo Ayacko, Kenya's Sports, Gender and Culture and Social Services Minister, is to lead his country's delegation to the 49th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, opening in New York 28 February. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- Ghanaian women, citing their numbers and education in a male-dominated society are calling for more representation in the administration. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Over 300 civil society women activists from 12 African, European and Asian countries Thursday continued deliberations here at a two-day meeting on the promotion of gender equity in national settings. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- What would befall Africa if its womenfolk went on strike to protest against their social and gender discrimination? The African women's militancy and their role in the independence struggle, the fight against apartheid, demands for political pluralism, their passion for peace and justice and, lately, protection of the environment, are well documented historical facts. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- A Beninese lawyer and political activist, Marie Elise Gbedo, a main mover of a conference on gender issues entering its second day in Niamey on Thursday, has urged her fellow African women to venture into politics to avoid being sidelined from decision-making in their respective countries. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Rising from the ruins of the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has become Africa's pacemaker in elevating the status of women and ensuring their full participation in shaping the future of the country. Full text...

Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- President Olusegun Obasanjo made a case for a new spirit in the nation's politics, calling Monday for an amendment to the nation's electoral law to give a statutory allocation of 25 per cent of elective posts to women in future elections. Full text...

Kigali- Rwanda (PANA) -- The strive by African women for gender equality marked yet another milestone after frontline activists meeting here agreed Friday to set up a continental watchdog on women's rights. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- A former player with Nigeria's national female football team has successfully undergone a sex change in the US, press accounts affirmed here Friday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Women's rights activists in Kenya are demanding the resignation of Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi after he compared the USA's withdrawal of anti-graft funds from the country to an act of someone raping a submissive woman. Full text...

Kigali- Rwanda (PANA) -- Africa's attainment of the millennium development goals (MDGs) lies in bringing about the equality of women and men, UNDP Deputy Regional Director for Africa Elizabeth Lwanga stressed here Tuesday. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- While some African countries have made progress to increase the women's profile in government, the majority of states continue to marginalise them in political decision-making structures, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Full text...

Douala- Cameroon (PANA) -- Cameroonian women associations fighting female genital mutilation (FGM) are onto a vast mobilisation ahead of the World Excision Day next 6 February. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The second conference of African First Ladies on AIDS and conflict prevention will hold here on 9 February, official sources indicated Tuesday. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Governmental and non-governmental organisations in the Horn of Africa countries will hold a two-day conference in Djibouti next week on how to end the practice of female genital mutilation. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA ) -- Mauritania's ruling Democratic and Social Republican Party, PRDS, is to empower the country's women as part of efforts towards creating an egalitarian society, Secretary General Boullah Ould Mogueya has said. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- A significant number of women reporters covering conflicts suffer physical attacks or intimidation, according to a new survey conducted by the International News Safety Institute (INSI) based in Brussels. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Berenger is advocating the entry of more women and young girls into Parliament and the cabinet after the general elections scheduled in August or September this year. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Police in the central Kenya district of Meru Wednesday arrested a traditional surgeon for allegedly circumcising two men who had already undergone the rite. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- DR Congo's South-Kivu province has marked this year's International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence, with activists condemning the practice. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Female members of the Ugandan parliament have proposed the enactment of a law that would make a woman Vice President to a male President and vice-versa, arguing that this portends gender equality was "not a mere verbal token". Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Mauritania and Qatar have set up a joint body to promote women's affairs in their countries, official sources said. Full text...

Nouakchott- Mauritania (PANA) -- Mauritania's Secretary of State for women affairs, Zeinebou Mint Mohamed Ould Nahah, said the country had taken major steps in women's advancement, due largely to the political will of its leaders. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A Malian designer, Awa Meite, is organising the exhibition of nearly 80 models here Monday at a fashion show dedicated to women living with the incurable HIV/AIDS, the promoters of the event told PANA. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- About 38. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- The number of Cameroonian women in government rose from three to six in the new cabinet decreed here last Wednesday by President Paul Biya. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Zimbabwe's first female vice president, Joyce Mujuru, was sworn into office Monday as President Robert Mugabe's second deputy. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Sexual harassment and gender discrimination are largely to blame for the high school drop-out rate among girls in Uganda, says the Kampala's state minister for education, Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Employing more female civil servants may be key to instilling a greater degree of ethical values and professionalism to ensure client-oriented and responsive public administrations in Africa, a senior UN official suggested here Wednesday. Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- Morocco's national network of monitoring centres for women victims of violence (ANARUZ) announced Tuesday the launch of a web site on violence against women. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- A group of Gambian women Tuesday launched a sensitisation campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and other harmful traditional practices and gender-based violence against women in the country. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Despite some legal reforms, Human Rights Watch (HRW) insists Egypt's divorce system discriminates against women and undermines their right to end a marriage. Full text...

Saint-Denis- Reunion (PANA) -- A protest march against violence on women and children has been announced here for 28 November. Full text...

Port-Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritians of both sexes and different ages Thursday joined in a public show of support for Amnesty International's call for the intensification of the fight against violence directed at women. Full text...

New York- UN (PANA) -- As the world marked International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UN officials led by Secretary-General Kofi Annan Thursday called for building a world in which women enjoy rights and freedoms on equal basis with men. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Scores of Zambian women Thursday in Lusaka joined their counterparts in other parts of the world to commemorate the international days against gender violence. Full text...