"Hearings will continue on January 18," Judge Elton Hoff said Friday after ten days of hearings.

The case was expected to conclude Friday but there were a number of witnesses still expected to give testimony.

The three women are part of a group of 16 women who are each suing the Namibian government for 1.2 million Namibian dollars (165,000 US dollars, 130,000 euros) for allegedly sterilising them without their consent because they are HIV-positive.

The case of the other 13 will follow later.

In the first such case in Africa, one of the woman plaintiffs testified earlier this week testified she was in labour when approached by a nurse who handed her a document to sign, saying the form would authorise a Caesarean section.

The woman, whose name has not been divulged at the court's order, said she only found out that she had been sterilised when she overheard two nurses discussing it in the hospital ward.

The woman said the nurses said she had been sterilised because she is HIV-positive, which infects about 15 percent of Namibians between the ages of 15 and 49.

More than 40 women have allegedly suffered a similar experience, with their cases recorded and presented to the health ministry in August 2008 by legal aid groups and a women's AIDS organisation.

The alleged incidents happened at three state hospitals -- two in thecapital Windhoek and one 700 kilometres (440 miles) north in Oshakati, the women said.

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