Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- The secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is in the process of developing a gender policy for the region, with a view to promoting parity in a region where women are still a long way to asserting their rights. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Lawyers, magistrates and other jurists began reflects here Wednesday towards harmonising the Family and Peoples Code with the country's Constitution. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- The Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy, Susan Shabangu is hosting the South African Women in Nuclear (WIN) workshop at the Kopanong Conference Centre, Benoni. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan women, pursuing compensation claims from the British government over alleged rape by the British soldiers, on Thursday marched in the streets of Nairobi before presenting the British High Commissioner a petition to demand the claims. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Controversy is simmering over the nationality of newly crowned Miss Uganda after she admitted that although she was born and raised in the East African country, her father is Senegalese. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Ugandan government's failure to protect women from domestic violence and discrimination increases their risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- KwaZulu-Natal entrepreneur, Tholakele Hadebe has won the 2003 Technology for Women in Business (TWIB) Award, at a glittering ceremony held in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. Full text...

Praia- Cape Verde (PANA) -- A regional gender training centre for West and Central Africa will be set up in Cape Verde before the end of this year, reliable sources disclosed here Sunday. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's all-women rescue crew, believed to be the first in the world, from the Nokia Surf Rescue Helicopter Service, is keeping a close eye on Durban's coastline festivities during the Women's Day weekend which began on Saturday. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- To commemorate this year's National Women's Day, the South African Airways (SAA) said it would operate an all-female crew flight to Durban Saturday. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki on Friday saluted South African women ahead of National Women's Day and renewed his government's commitment to transform South Africa into a non-sexist country. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- As the 9 August National Women's Day observance draws near, the provincial Gauteng Health Department Thursday paid tribute to women in the public health sector to acknowledge their contributions. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Ten leading South African women have been named the finalists in this year's Visible Difference Awards which is timed to coincide with National Women's Day, to pay tribute to the unsung heroines of South Africa. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Democratic Republic of Congo women have raised concern over what they see as marginalisation in the transitional institutions of the country, and are calling for readjustment. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A woman who has dedicated much of her life to training impoverished members of society to read and write on Thursday night walked away as winner of the Woman of the Year Award at a prestigious function here. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Malians Thursday observed Pan-African Women's Day noting a sharp increase over a decade in the number of girls enrolled in school in the West African state. Full text...

Tunis- Tunisia (PANA) -- The Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), Tunisia's governing party, says women would make up about 25 percent of its candidates in the next legislative and municipal elections. Full text...

Lagos- Nigerian (PANA) -- The executive director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, has called for tough laws globally against "criminals" engaged in trafficking women and children. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- While there is need to support trade, resolve financial crisis, stop wars, end environmental degradation and cope with climate changes, among others, women's reproductive rights should not fade into the periphery," the director of the Society for International Development (SID), Wendy Harcourt, said on Thursday. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Speaker Ali Nouhoum Diallow of ECOWAS Parliament has challenged African women to stand up and fight for their rights. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- The Gabonese Movement for Well-being (MGBEF), an NGO specialised in planned parenthood and reproductive health, Thursday launched a campaign here to promote the use of female condoms. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The debate on abortion in Kenya took a new twist Friday with MP Cecily Mbarire urging the government to legalise the practice so as to reduce deaths from clandestine abortions. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger's Minister of Social Development, Population and Women's Protection, Halimatou Abdoulwahid, Friday denounced early marriages, which often resulted in complications during child delivery in the country. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- African women are set to acquire a new instrument in their struggle for emancipation and elimination of all forms of discrimination, after the African Union executive council adopted a Protocol to the African charter on human and peoples' rights, relating to women's rights. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Some 50 councillors in Benin started a capacity building seminar here Tuesday aimed at improving efficiency and transparency in the running of local councils. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A Kenyan legislator claimed that 98 percent of domestic violence cases in the country were caused by inheritance, land disputes and polygamy. Full text...

Pretoria- South Africa (PANA) -- First Lady Zanele Mbeki of South Africa has enjoined women in the country to be active participants in the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) as well as contribute to the vision, objectives and principles of the African Union. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- A notional survey has revealed that more than 43 percent of Uganda's population is denied access to credit facilities offered by Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), due to poor infrastructure. Full text...

Marrakech- Morocco (PANA) -- The proceedings of the 2003 women's World Summit were officially launched in Marrakesh (320 km south of Rabat) Saturday night by Princess Lalla, sister of King Mohammed of Morocco. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Just about a third of girls of school going age are enrolled in Burkina Faso, official sources conceded here Friday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- UNICEF has raised alarm over violence meted against women and children in the ongoing conflict in DR Congo's Ituri Province. Full text...

Khartoum- Sudan (PANA) -- As workshop participants review stern travel restrictions on Sudanese women outside the country, a female government official has boldly criticised the restrictions as "discriminatory". Full text...

Rabat- Morocco (PANA) -- The 2003 Women's World Summit would hold 28-30 June in Marrakech, 320 km south of Rabat with some 700 women from more than 80 countries in attendance. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The UNICEF executive director, Carol Bellamy, on Tuesday in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) officially launched a campaign called "25 by 2005" aimed at accelerating the progress in education of girls during the next two years. Full text...

Khartoum- Sudan (PANA) -- President Omar el Bashir of Sudan said on Monday that his government would donate 5. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan Women are upbeat following recent recommendations that a truth and reconciliation commission for the country be constituted, saying the body would help "spill out" all wrongs committed against them and their families during past regimes. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- A Gambian police inspector Abdoulie Colly has been accused of raping a 12-year-old schoolgirl in the fishing town of Tujereng. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambia Monday joined the rest of the continent in marking the day of the African child, observed in memory of the children of South Africa who were massacred in Soweto in 1976 for speaking out against injustice. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Only eight African countries allow pregnant school girls to complete their studies after delivery, the executive director of the Forum African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Penina Mlama has revealed here. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Efforts in Africa to crack down on sexual harassment of girls in schools are proving difficult because African governments refuse to recognise the existence of the problem, a senior World Bank official charged here Tuesday. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- In her heyday, when Miriam Makeba sang, the whole world listened. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- A plan of action to promote greater participation of Niger women in decision-making and construction of the country has been adopted at the end of a national forum on political empowerment of women. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has appointed veteran journalist and President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) Remi Oyo, as his spokesperson. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- The number of children being trafficked from Malawi to South Africa, the US and Europe for sexual work is alarmingly increasing despite lack of official records, a child rights NGO has said. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- The Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-Kenya) has launched a training manual on women's rights aimed at assisting leaders, organisations and women to communicate and advocate effectively the rights of women. Full text...

Goma- DR Congo (PANA) -- Immaculee Biraheka, co-ordinator of a Congolese NGO dubbed Women's Initiatives Supporting Project (PIAF), is demanding the arrest of any person sexually abusing girls and women. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- In a continent where women are known for being at the receiving end nearly all the time, the rise and rise of Specioza Kazibwe to the envious position of vice president of Uganda was an inspiration to all females aspiring for leadership positions in Africa. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- A six-member all-female crew successfully flew passengers from Europe to Southern Africa on a scheduled British Airways inter-continental flight, company sources affirmed here Thursday. Full text...

Ezulwini- Swaziland (PANA) -- Swazi sex workers said they were all set to entertain foreign delegates coming to attend the annual Smart Partnership Summit to be hosted by the kingdom in August. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- UNIFEM Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer Monday began a three-day working visit to DR Congo, during which she would hold talks with President Joseph Kabila and women's organisations in the country. Full text...