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...

Khartoum- Sudan (PANA) -- The Sudanese Medical Council warned doctors Saturday that they face suspension if found practising female genital mutilation (FGM). Full text...

Malabo- Equatorial Guinea (PANA) -- African first ladies from Gabon, Burundi, Burkina Faso and representatives of a dozen other states meeting here have affirmed their determination to consolidate their peace mission as well as on humanitarian issues in the continent. Full text...

Malabo- Equatorial Guinea (PANA) -- About 50 African First Ladies are due to arrive in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea's capital, for the 4th summit of heads of state wives' mission for peace and humanitarian affairs slated for 14-16 May, organisers said Tuesday. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- The inhabitants of 23 Burkinabe villages of Bere and Binde departments have abandoned female genital mutilation (FGM). Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South African Airways (SAA), in its efforts to support the girl-child, will on Thursday host more than 20 pupils from Daliwonga Secondary School in Soweto at its Johannesburg headquarters to introduce them to a wide range of careers in aviation. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Women represent 26. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- The third edition of the international festival of women's voices dubbed 'Massao' (applause in the local Douala language) opened Friday in Cameroon's coastal city of Douala. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- Viviane Wade, Senegal's First Lady, has been trumpeting the need for women to benefit from education, literacy and professional training programmes. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- The Organisation of African First Ladies for the Fight Against AIDS (OPDAS) and NEPAD Secretariat will convene a three-day summit on gender and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) here beginning next Monday, an official source said here Saturday. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- A conference to draw up strategies on women's inclusion within the structures of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) kicked off Thursday in Dakar, the Senegalese capital. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Thursday challenged women worldwide to cooperate in creating a world free of wars, racism, sexism, hunger and poverty. Full text...

Kigali- Rwanda (PANA) -- Marie-Claire Shamukiga Kayirangwa has become the 18th member of the Rwandan Parliament comprising a total of 74 members. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- The annual Women in Dialogue conference between South Africa and Germany starts next Thursday in Berlin with focus on the role of women in development as well as progress and challenges facing women in the areas of gender equality. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Some 195. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- A three-day meeting opens here next Thursday to plan strategies of raising women's participation in the structures of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Full text...

Bangui- Central African Republic (PANA) -- Women in the Central African Republic have questioned the new CAR ruler, General Francois Bozize, on why only two women featured in the government formed in March by Prime Minister Abel Goumba. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- A rural women's group in Moanda, 600 km south-east of Libreville, has landed the State House Award honouring the best common initiative in agriculture, on the occasion of the country's National Women's Day. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- As she entered the offices of the Ivorian Urban Transportation Company (SOTRA) half an hour before starting her shift in Abidjan, and throwing greetings to her workmates as she worked her way to her station, Ahoua Coulibaly knew very well what labour history was being made in this country since her arrival at SOTRA. Full text...

Blantyre- Malawi (PANA) -- Malawian women's high fertility rate of 6. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- President Joaquim Chissano said Monday that despite constraints facing Mozambican women, the objectives for the creation of the Mozambican Women's Organisation (OMM) during the country's liberation struggle, had been achieved. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Some 200 youths in the Zambian capital Lusaka Friday held a noisy street protest to back up demands for the government to halt a proposed sale of three state owned companies, a move they said would result in job losses. Full text...

Libreville- Gabon (PANA) -- Malabo will next 14 May host the 4th peace summit of African First Ladies, the forum's current chair Constancia Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea disclosed Friday during a short visit to neighbouring Libreville, Gabon. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- When 18-year-old Momina Abdul Kadir turned down the advances of a young man living in her neighbourhood, she had no idea of the ordeal that was unfolding. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- The adoption of the draft protocol relating to women's rights in Africa would be a qualitative leap to full development of human beings without discrimination, a senior official of the African Union (AU) Commission said in Addis Ababa Thursday. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Extreme poverty affecting women in Niger has generally led them to begging or prostitution. Full text...

Banjul- Gambia (PANA) -- Gambia's Vice President and Secretary for Women's Affairs Isatou Njie-Saidy urged women in her country to take advantage of US African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) by exporting their products to American markets. Full text...

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura has urged countries all over the world to strive for gender equality, a "precondition for the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals fixed by the United Nations". Full text...

Malabo- Equatorial Guinea (PANA) -- Equatorial Guinean Women and Social Affairs Minister Teresa Efua Asangono has denounced the numerous constraints to which women in her country are subjected to, particularly early marriages and rape. Full text...

Mbabane- Swaziland (PANA) -- With her no-nonsense management approach, Swaziland University's vice-chancellor, Professor Lydia Phindile Makhubu, is referred to as "the iron lady" by students and her peers. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Women's groups in Zimbabwe took to the streets Saturday to urge recognition and respect for their gender, which they charged have been eroded by years of political tension in the country. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- As women the world over commemorated International Women's Day Saturday, those in Botswana did so with a little more pomp because unlike their counterparts elsewhere in Africa, they have made greater strides in the political arena. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- The democratic dispensation in Nigeria has favoured women development in the country, as women now play major roles in the conduct of national life, according to Nigerian women activists. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Very few women in Mali have been able to land elective and appointive positions alike, with the 147-member National Assembly counting only 14 women MPs, pundits noted on the occasion of this year's International Women's Day. Full text...

Cairo- Egypt (PANA) -- The country can hardly claim a lead role today, even though Egypt's Kassem Amin was the first Muslim intellectual to campaign for the emancipation of women and to pave the way for the emergence of a vanguard feminist movement in the Arab world nearly 100 years ago. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Women's Advancement Minister Halimata Ousseini has bemoaned the stranglehold of poverty on Niger women, warning that the situation could compromise efforts towards the Millennium Objectives. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- Immigrant African women in France have voiced their opposition to US-led plans to attack Iraq over the latter's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- The plight of the Congolese woman has relatively improved since the national conference of February- June 1991, which saw the emergence of a policy on women's emancipation, observers acknowledge. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- In Senegal where, on average, girls marry at the age of 20, the marriage of adolescent is quite commonplace as half of the country's women get married before their 23rd birthday and more than a third of them before they reach 18, according to a study conducted by an NGO, Population Council. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- The International Women's Day, which will be observed on Saturday throughout the world, will not be celebrated with any particular splendour this year in war-torn Cote d'Ivoire, according to official sources in Abidjan. Full text...

Yaounde- Cameroon (PANA) -- Even though they constitute about 52 percent of the country's 15. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The regional director for Africa of the United Nations Woman's Fund (UNIFEM), Micheline Ravololonarisoa, and the resident representative of UN Development Programme (UNDP), Ahmed Rhazaoui, have appealed for a better involvement of women in the fight against poverty, one of the eight objectives of the millennium for development. Full text...

Saint-Denis- Reunion (PANA) -- The Reunion Women's Defence Association has indicated it would seize the occasion of International Women's Day on Saturday to show support for Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning under Islamic Law. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer has deplored the violence directed at women living in conflict areas, appealing to the concerned states to take measures to protect them. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- Failure to focus on gender has held back progress in development around the world, says UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Mark Malloch Brown. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- A study launched Friday in Johannesburg on gender equity vis-à-vis media access in Southern Africa shows that women constitute 17 percent of news sources, slightly below the global average of 18 percent. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- As women in other parts of the world prepare to mark World Women's Day on Saturday, Botswana is reeling in shock over a series of murders involving young women reportedly killed by their estranged lovers. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya has set aside US$132 million in the 2002/2003 budget to finance the education of girls in 69 schools, an assistant Education minister, Kilemi Mwiria, said here Friday. Full text...

Mbabane- Swaziland (PANA) -- Swazi women rights activists have high hopes that the keenly awaited constitution will address their minor status in the male-dominated society. Full text...

Bamako- Mali (PANA) -- Mali will on Saturday celebrate with pomp International Women's Day with various activities held throughout the country, sources from the country's Promotion of Women, Children and Family Ministry said in Bamako Thursday. Full text...