To many of us Anna Politkovskaya will remain the epitome of what a journalist should be.

She represented the best traditions of the Russian intelligentsia - highly cultured, courageous and fiercely honest.

A softly-spoken and serious woman who always talked in measured terms, she was deeply concerned about what was happening in her country.

She was also deeply disturbed by the direction the Putin administration was taking it, and despite the huge pressures put on Russia's media to submit and conform, she regularly investigated and reported the many abuses she believed were ruining the country's progress towards a normal state of democracy.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6034701.stm

Anna Politkovskaya made her name reporting from Chechnya for Russia's liberal newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.

She was also the author of two books in English, A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (2001), and Putin's Russia (2004).

Her writing was often polemical, as bitter in its condemnation of the Russian army and the Russian government as it was fervent in support of human rights and the rule of law.

The following are extracts from Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya published by Harvill. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6035133.stm

In the House of Farewell, an austere, cavernous funeral hall at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery, the body of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya lay in an open casket Tuesday afternoon as thousands of mourners -- ambassadors, journalists, civil activists, politicians and ordinary Russians -- filed past and paid their final respects.

No senior Kremlin official attended   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101000859.html

A well-placed insider said today that some within the intelligence community are taking an alternative view in confirming Pyongyang’s claims that it has a nuclear program.  Other than loud words, a few seismic wiggles, acquisition of nuclear technology and materials, and an active missile program, there is little hard evidence of a nuclear program.  Some analysts believe North Korea may now be perpetrating a ruse.  Those analysts believe Pyongyang may be replacing a failing nuclear program with an active deception program.

Some analysts believe North Korea may now be playing a high-stakes political gambit modeling its strategy after Libya.  Gadhafi, once considered one of the more evil leaders on earth, acquired nuclear components and apparently set out to make atomic weapons, yet after apparently failing, agreed to give up his WMD program if sanctions were dropped.  http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWNjMzgyZDAzMTc4YWFiYjgzNDdjZTk3ZGRmODkyNTE=

At least 11 000 children in Congo are still in the hands of armed groups or unaccounted for three years after the end of a war in which they were captured and forced to fight, Amnesty International said today.

Democratic Republic of Congo is trying to haul itself back to lasting peace after a 1998-2003 conflict dubbed Africa's first world war, which triggered a humanitarian crisis estimated to have killed nearly four million people. But as the vast country prepares for an October 29 presidential run-off vote meant to open a new era in its history, thousands of children are still being kept as fighters by armed groups ready to return to war if peace fails, Amnesty said in a report.

Congo's government launched a programme across the country - roughly the size of western Europe - two years ago to release child soldiers and reintegrate them into civilian life, but Amnesty said the scheme was failing.
http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/central_africa/0,2172,136449,00.html

Women in Ethiopia are most likely to suffer violence at the hands of their partners, says the United Nations.

Nearly 60% of Ethiopian women were subjected to sexual violence, including marital rape, according to the Ending Violence Against Women report.

Almost half of all Zambian women said they had been attacked by a partner. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6040180.stm