The last of a series of sieges by women protesters on facilities of ChevronTexaco in southeastern Nigeria's Niger Delta has ended following an agreement between representatives of the protesters and the US transnational, company officials said last Friday.

In Security Council Resolution 1325, member states urge the incorporation of a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations and urge the Secretary-General to include gender components in field operations. In the same resolution, the Security Council calls on all actors to adopt a gender perspective in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction, and expresses its willingness to ensure that missions take into account gender considerations.

Among the dozens of men labouring knee-deep in muddy holes at a gold claim near Mbalabala, 80 kilometres north of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second large city, a handful of women also toil, their torn dresses spattered with dirt. Panning for gold is no longer a male preserve in Zimbabwe and women have now taken up the activity.

In December last year Jane Kayomberera did a course on fruit preservation, later joining hands with Edith Munube to start a local women's group called the Entebbe Cottage Industry. This year, the women reaped their first harvest and paid school fees for the first term.

The Shari'ah Islamic code is affecting non-Muslims in Nigeria. Those affected in recent times are 11 nurses. The 11 women are facing disciplinary action for their refusal to wear the Islamic prescribed uniform of veil and trousers, for nurses at the Federal Medical Centre, Azare, Bauchi State.

AMANITARE is organizing a Pan-African conference entitled, "African Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Conference: Prosperity Through Empowerment", that will be held from 4th to 7th February 2003 in Johannesburg, South Africa. With its forward-looking agenda, this conference will provide a rare opportunity to bring together African Women's Health and Rights movement activists with policy makers, researchers, health care providers, youth representatives, and the media from all sub-regions of the African continent - creating a unique forum for debate and creative strategising around Gender and Health in Africa.

Information technology (IT) has become a potent force in transforming social, economic, and political life globally. Without its incorporation into the information age, there is little chance for countries or regions to develop. More and more concern is being shown about the impact of those left on the other side of the digital divide - the division between the information "haves" and "have nots." Most women within developing countries are in the deepest part of the divide - further removed from the information age than the men whose poverty they share.

Launched in March, 1996, the RESCUER programme was a referral project designed to address the high maternal mortality rate in Uganda. Centred in the Iganga District, it worked in six health units and one referral hopsital to empower Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs). Uganda is one of the least urbanised countries in Africa. Over 80 percent of the population (which totals 20 million people) live in rural areas. Uganda's economy depends mainly on agriculture; women contribute 60-80 percent of the labour. Women's health, therefore, has vital social and economic implications for national development. In this context, it is notable that the maternal mortality rate among Ugandan women is 506/10,000. Sixty-two percent of births are attended by TBAs and relatives.

Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK) is an NGO founded in August 1993 by a group of women, the majority of whom are HIV positive. WOFAK targets women, who are particularly vulnerable to infection, in the following three regions: Homa Bay (South Nyanza), Kayole in the Eastlands of Nairobi, and Nairobi City Center.

Sudanese author Kola Boof will not give into death threats, and continues to speak out about the "daily event" of enslavement in Sudan. The Islamist Khartoum government denies the existence of slavery in Sudan. The highly controversial feminist author further has caused rage among her fellow Muslim Sudanese lashing out against "manmade religions," and now lives in American exile.

Knowledge about AIDS is dangerously low among rural Ugandan women and girls who have dropped out of school. The 'senga', the father’s sister, used to give sexual advice to young girls, but this tradition is dying out in central Uganda. Could it be revived and adapted to provide information about HIV?

Prevalence of HIV-1 infection and syphilis dropped substantially among 15- to 24-year-old women attending antenatal clinics at inner-city health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

A report released last week by the US-based Human Rights Watch documents increased suffering of children and women in Congo in the past four years.

Thousands of women under the banner of the Christian Women Initiatives are calling for a neutral force and the creation of a peaceful and conducive security environment for free and fair elections in 2003.

When hundreds of unarmed village women captured a ChevronTexaco terminal, winning promises of jobs and development from the oil giant, Helen Amushuka was too sick to join them. Her situation is typical of many in the surrounding areas.

Rules relating to the nomination and election of judges, prosecutors and deputy prosecutors and the Trust Fund for Victims were main issues delegates discussed at the Woman's Caucus Ninth Session of the ICC Preparatory Commission.

“Male physical tolerance” studies and HIV+ men have been discussed at Microbicides 2002.

The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs in collaboration with the UNFPA have organized a workshop under the theme 'The Role of the Media in promoting Gender Mainstreaming and the Protection of the Rights of the Child'. They called on the media to step up a vigorous campaign for gender sensitisation in the country, saying to "ignore the issues of gender is to neglect labour, social, economic and political issues."

The rhetoric of participation and gender awareness has entered the development mainstream. Has this led to more equitable development initiatives? What are the consequences of the frequently found slippage between ‘involving women’ and ‘addressing gender’? And how can those using participatory approaches address issues of gender difference more effectively?

Gender equality has been given high priority in both the African Union (AU) charter and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad)principles. However, as the AU sat in its inaugural session, all the African leaders present (a few of the 52 countries were represented by their foreign ministers) at the International Convention Centre in Durban were men. Of all the African foreign ministers, only two are women: Nkosazana Zuma of South Africa and Lilian Patel of Malawi.