The much vaunted respect for the freedom of the press in Nigeria did not make much impression on the World Press Freedom ranking of countries recently released by the Paris, France - based Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The country was ranked 103rd of 166 countries. The ranking, which is the second by the group, listed North Korea at 166, as the worst violator of press freedom. Cuba was ranked second to the worst at 165 while China was near the bottom at 161.

A national immunisation exercise against the polio virus launched in Nigeria last week has been slowed down by the refusal of many people in the country's mainly Muslim north to participate, officials said on Monday. The nationwide campaign was part of a regional effort launched in vulnerable West African countries on Wednesday by international agencies to protect 15 million children against a recent resurgence of polio.

Nigeria's trade unions have announced that they would call for mass action to protest government's refusal to revert to the old price of fuel. They said they would resume the suspended mass protests scheduled to have started on Oct. 9, but which were called off after governors of Nigeria's 36 states hammered a deal with the trade union leaders.

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The family of the late General Sani Abacha have failed in their bid to halt repatriation of millions of dollars of Nigeria's looted funds stashed away in several foreign banks by the former Head of State.

The public prosecutor's office in Paris said this week it was opening a formal judicial inquiry into alleged corruption by a French engineering firm and the American oil services giant Halliburton, which was headed until two years ago by Dick Cheney, the vice-president of the United States. The financial crimes squad in Paris believes a French oil and gas engineering firm, Technip, and particularly the Halliburton subsidiary KBR were jointly involved during the 1990s in the payment of up to $200m (£120m) of under-the-counter "commissions" in relation to a huge gas contract in Nigeria.

Ragged, exhausted and scarred, 74 children apparently sold into bondage were on their way home on Thursday after being rescued from Nigerian granite quarries. The children, some just four years old, told aid workers at least 13 of their companions had died and been buried in shallow graves after succumbing to beatings, hunger, illness and exposure in the pits near the south-western Nigerian city of Abeokuta.

Twelve northern states in Nigeria took various steps in 1999 to extend implementation of Shari'ah law. These steps could have been the most significant and controversial changes in Nigeria’s laws in many years. Although the Muslim population is in the majority in all of these states, there are non-Muslim populations, notably Christians, as well. A research study plans to examine the effect of the new Shari'ah implementation on pluralism in general, and on constitutionally guaranteed rights of non-Muslims in particular.

As the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) held its 14th Annual General Meeting at the Lekki Conservation Centre in Lagos, its president, Chief Philip Asiodu has noted that the country is still faced with "accelerating environmental degradation."

To rekindle the confidence of the international community, particularly the sleaze watchdog, the Switzerland-based Transparency International (TI) in its anti-corruption crusade, Nigeria needs to quickly enact its Freedom to Information law, a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) submitted to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Headquarters seems to have suggested.

One of Nigeria's oldest and biggest universities has been closed indefinitely over non-payment of teachers' salaries, officials at the institution said on Wednesday. Authorities of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in the northern city of Zaria on Tuesday announced the closure of the institution following a rift between the teachers and the university administration over unpaid salaries, they said.

Nigeria is threatening legal action against the UK government unless it returns, with interest, £3m ($5m) that it says was stolen from its central bank. The money - a small fraction of the billions of dollars thought to have been plundered by Sani Abacha, the late African dictator - was seized in 1998 from a Nigerian businessman at Heathrow airport. The UK Treasury acquired the money after the customs service argued it was probably the proceeds of drug sales.

Nigeria has lodged a request for judicial cooperation with Switzerland as part of an ongoing probe into an alleged multi-billion-dollar embezzlement by the late military dictator Sani Abacha, Swiss authorities said on Saturday.

The Federal Government reacted to Tuesday’s classification of Nigeria as the second most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International (TI), saying it was nothing to worry about. Chairman of TI, Mr. Peter Eigen, also speaking on the classification, said it might take generations before corruption could be rooted out in Nigeria.

Barely two weeks after 116 children were returned to neighbouring Benin, another set of 120 children kidnapped from that country have been rescued by the Nigerian police. They are victims of child trafficking and forced child labour.

A Nigerian minister has told a corruption investigation that two senators asked him to pay $414,000 for them to confirm his appointment. Nasir el-Rufai says that when he said he did not have the money, he was told to recoup his "investment" from land sales.

The main trade union in Nigeria has suspended plans for a general strike on Thursday originally called to protest at a sharp increase in the cost of fuel. A statement by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said they had decided to call off the stoppage after oil marketing companies agreed to revert to the previous oil prices.

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has condemned the recent expulsion of the correspondent of The Monitor newspaper from the Presidential Villa. Cyril Mbah was banished from Aso Rock over a commentary which was critical of President Olusegun Obasanjo's style of administration.

Government officials, as well as many in the scientific and technical community, are hailing the launch of a satellite, known as Nigersat 1, not only for its potential practical contributions to the country’s development objectives, but also as a symbol of its progress in science and technology. However others have criticised the government for investing between US$15 million and US$20 million in a 'grandiose project', which, they claim, will do little to address poverty.

Sixteen years after 36 communities were displaced for the construction of Shiroro Hydro-Electric Dam Station, the people are calling for proper compensation for their land. Speaking through the Gala-dima-Pogo village head, Alhaji Aliyu Dada, the affected communities said that the Federal Government and the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) - the owners of the dam - have neglected them since 1984 when they were moved from their land for the construction of the dam.