Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- As Zambians gear up for the 2002 fiscal budget, to be unveiled by finance and national planning minister Emmanuel Kasonde next week, gender activists said they hoped they presentation would not overlook vulnerable women. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- A Bill seeking to repeal harmful and dehumanising traditional practices against women has sparked a heated debate among legislators in Nigeria's south-eastern Rivers State. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- Female presidential aspirant Zainab Bangura has lashed out at fellow politicians who desert their parties to join the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) ahead of the upcoming elections. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- African and US business women are meeting in Botswana to assert their role in the global economy and explore ways to remove constraints against international trade. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Twenty-six women from 16 English -speaking African countries have graduated from the Cisco Internet Networking Academy after 280 hours of training at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Full text...

Harare- Zimbabwe (PANA) -- Women pressure groups in Zimbabwe were up in arms Thursday with a growing practice in the country of carrying out virginity tests on young girls as part of efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The government of Benin has disbursed 100 million francs CFA and equipment to 263 women's groupings across the country, State Radio announced Wednesday. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- A movement referred to as "Pro- Choice" has been launched in Mauritius to campaign for women to be given the right to decide whether to abort or not. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A local NGO has devised a pastoral scheme to lure practising women off female genital mutilation (FGM), popular among some Kenyan communities as an initiation rite into womanhood. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- A New York-based women and children's right NGO dubbed Witness, has launched a video documentary depicting rape as a weapon of war in Sierra Leone. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Tired of seeking visas for their non- resident husbands, Kenyan women are demanding dual citizenship, a right they insist should be entrenched in the constitution in recognition of the increasing number of children from mixed marriages. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South African opposition parties have raised a outcry after Thursday's dropping of charges against six men arrested on suspicion of raping a nine month old baby in the Northern Cape last October. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Twenty Benin women involved in female genital mutilation (FGM) in Kalale district in north-eastern Benin undertook to give up their trade at a ceremony organised last week to present them with materials for alternative sources of income. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- Zambian women will on Friday mount a big demonstration in Lusaka against police bias and the stripping of women earlier this week by unruly youths believed to belong to the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy party. Full text...

Freetown- Sierra Leone (PANA) -- British Council director in Sierra Leone Rajiv Bendre has expressed concern over the lack of opportunities for women to play their part fully in the running of the country. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- A movement grouping a dozen Protestant communities in DR Congo and dubbed 'Women, Source of Abundance' (FEBA), Thursday organised an awareness campaign on the rights of girls. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA -- South African Sergeant Adrian Stuurman from the Claremont Police Station in Cape Town was this week arrested and charged with one count of rape, two years after sex workers laid complaints against him. ) Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Department of Public Works this week handed over a construction project for 2. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Women in Mauritius have launched a campaign for changes in matrimonial and allied laws that are biased against women in the country. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Some 263 rural women's credit groups in Niger have received grants from the Zinder district poverty alleviation agency, local press reports indicated at the weekend. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The rate of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Benin stood at about 12 percent in 2001, a sociological and demographic study has revealed in Cotonou. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- With the support of Prime Minister Aneerood Jugnauth, Mauritius is ensuring that women's equality is reflected in the national budget and economic policies, according to the UN Development Programme. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Senegalese associations for the defence of women's rights are of the view that the late Leopold Sedar was at the centre of women's liberation. Full text...

Saint Denis- Reunion (PANA) -- More and more women in Reunion are seeking jobs, according to the National Institute Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), which explained the trend on a craving for independence. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Migration in West Africa, which has been the preserve of men for a long time, is now increasingly including women, Senegalese sociologist Abdou Salam Fall has said in Dakar. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- Liberian President Charles Taylor has denied rumours that he mercilessly flogged the First Lady, Jewel, now in the United States on a medical trip, press reports said Tuesday. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritius Pro-life Committee, a grouping of non-governmental and social-cultural organisations, announced Tuesday plans to launch of an awareness campaign against the legalisation of abortion. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- More than a decade since the UN placed issues concerning children on the front burner, Tanzania is faced with worsening infant and child mortality rates. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- One-time Liberian leader Ruth Perry has cautioned Congolese women against adopting a passive attitude towards the conduct of national affairs, urging them to contribute actively to the search for peace in DR Congo. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Representatives of the Mano River Union Women for Peace Network (MARWOPNET) Wednesday appealed to ECOWAS leaders to quickly resolve lingering conflicts within the three member countries of the Union. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- In the facade of the ember street lights, stands two teenage girls scantily dressed in micro-skirts and in total defiance of the cold December breeze hitting Nairobi these days. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- The Women Rights ministry in Mauritius would examine recommendations of the Task Force on women in order to promulgate acts ensuring conformity with the provisions of the Convention for the elimination of laws discriminatory against women, Prime minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth said Tuesday in Port Louis. Full text...

Johannesburg- South Africa (PANA) -- Just hours after Vanessa Carreira was crowned Miss South Africa 2001, other contestants complained of favouritism and racism. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger has set up a watchdog for the promotion of women's rights known as ONPF. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A lobby group to address abuses and other prejudices against the boy-child has been formed in Kenya, official sources said Thursday. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- Commercial sexual exploitation of children, one of the worst forms of child abuse, is raising concern around the world, but more particularly in developing countries, a new report by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), has indicated. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- A Malian couple, that fled their country to save their grand daughter from female circumcision, obtained a refugee status in France Wednesday. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- About 10,000 girls become pregnant in Kenyan schools each year and have to abandon learning, a study by the Teenage Mothers Association of Kenya says. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A group of 21 women organisations have announced they were going to sue the Kenyan government over what they described as discrimination against them. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- A senior Namibian women activist has urged womenfolk in her country to strive for nomination to top positions now that President Sam Nujoma and Prime Minister Hage Geingob have announced their intention to step down at the end of their current terms of office. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan women Thursday proposed the setting up of a non-aligned national movement as a platform for campaigning for their rights. Full text...

Luanda- Angola (PANA) -- Emilia Fernandes, secretary general of the Angolan chapter of Women's Network, has expressed the need for legislation against domestic violence which has become a major problem in the country. Full text...

Port Louis- Mauritius (PANA) -- Mauritian Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth, Wednesday urged greater action in support of gender equality and the empowerment of women in the country. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyans were outraged on Tuesday over the strong support a Member of Parliament expressed for female genital mutilation during a debate in Nairobi on Monday. Full text...

Bonn- Germany (PANA) -- Women throughout the world should have the same access to water resources as men, participants at an international conference on fresh water urged Monday in Bonn. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- A Kenyan women's pressure group has launched a 16-day campaign on violence against women in the country. Full text...

Brazzaville- Congo (PANA) -- Contributing in the development of women through the press is the goal of four young female editors running the first Congolese monthly magazines devoted mainly to women's issues. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Former US Vice President Al Gore canvassed Thursday in Lagos for the political and economic empowerment of women, saying this was essential for genuine human development. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- The Abidjan-based African Development Fund (ADF) Thursday announced a $0. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- "As both of you are lazy, I have decided to marry a third wife," Mohamad Maghrabi, then 55, told his two wives in 1960, after humiliating and battering them. Full text...