Africa: AU summit pledges to promote women's rights

African leaders on Wednesday pledged to place women at the heart of their development agenda, and to intensify the fight against disease. In an 11-point action plan agreed at the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, they set out a strategy for improving the women's rights on the continent. The newly elected AU chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, told leaders that many African countries still held negative attitudes towards women.