Forty percent of patients with HIV in Uganda only have their infection diagnosed when they are already ill because of HIV, or have developed AIDS, investigators report in a study published in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The authors believe that this figure is likely to represent the lower bound for number of patients diagnosed late.

The Ugandan minister of justice should immediately inform 17 individuals who have languished in prison for years of their legal status, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to the minister of justice. The individuals have long awaited "minister's orders" from the minister of justice to determine whether they should be imprisoned, released, or placed in the appropriate custodial care.

MPs in Uganda have demanded an explanation on the fluctuating rainfall pattern, which they said had become difficult for farmers to understand. Discussing the looming famine in many parts of the country, several MPs said farmers could not tell when to plant the crops due to the erratic rainfall patterns. Samuel Odonga Otto (FDC) said Pader district had experienced drought in the last two months which weather experts had said would be a rainy season.

A new global report on Environment has warned that Uganda could be a total dessert in 40 years if the government fails to protect the country’s forests. Uganda has reportedly lost more than 30 percent of its forest between 1990 and 2005. The findings of the State of the Environment Report for 2008, has blamed the great loss of forest cover to human activities, which include among others agriculture, a fast growing population and rapid urbanisation.

Civilians in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) villages are continuing to flee repeat reprisal attacks by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The attacks have been provoked by ongoing anti-LRA operations by the DRC army in the region, according to locals. "The LRA continues to attack the villages, which they burn and loot, and kidnap civilians," Leandres Bwilu, the administrator of the worst-affected territory of Dungu, in Orientale Province, told IRIN.

cc While Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni remains keen to stress his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party's increasing popularity in the country's north, Vincent Nuwagaba decries the deliberate fusing of party and state activities. With the NRM able to command all the financial resources the state's coffers will allow, Nuwagaba laments the discrimination directed at Ugandans supporting opposition parties and stresses the need for the country to become a genuine meritocracy.

The fight against gay church leaders is on in Uganda, led by top anti-gay Pastors Martin Sempa, Solomon Male and Michael Kyazze. According to media reports these Pastors say they have received about 150 complaints from alleged sodomy victims who claim to have been abused by a number of church leaders.

After 500 young women in Uganda endured genital mutilations in the most recent season for the initiation rite, a physician lawmaker here is optimistic about outlawing the practice this year and finding new income for traditional surgeons.

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda should ensure that the recommendations of the Uganda Human Rights Commission are carried out and that independent commissioners are appointed promptly to the new Equal Opportunities Commission, the Human Rights Network-Uganda, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Museveni.

Ugandan HIV activists have expressed concern over a recommendation by parliament's budget committee that the allocation for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs be cut. The national budget for 2008/09 allocated 76 billion shillings (US$38 million) to purchasing ARVs, the first such allocation in the country's history, but this week the house standing committee recommended that the amount be cut to 40 billion shillings in the 2009/2010 budget.

Amid concerns on the safety of genetically-modified cro ps and the cost of acquiring GM seeds by the largely peasant African farmers, the debate over the acceptability of biotechnology continues to rage in Uganda, just it does in most parts of Africa. Supporters of biotechnology said it offered Africa the best chance of guarding against food insecurity because it enhances agricultural productions.

Uganda's opposition parties are demanding reforms in the electoral commission as the country prepares for the presidential polls in 2011. The statement presented to parliament yesterday by Forum for Democratic Change president, Kizza Besigye, suggests major facelifts in the way elections are conducted, the announcement of winners, while also calling for the reinstatement of the presidential term limits.

A petition demanding the government of Uganda to respect people’s rights and fundamental freedoms, as prescribed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is doing the rounds among gay rights and civil society organisations throughout Africa. This is a result of what activists call a threat to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people’s human rights in Uganda caused by the state’s failure to recognise these rights and protect this group’s rights to privacy, equality and freedom.

I-Network, the IICD-supported national Information and Communication Network in Uganda assisted in forming a protection association for Ugandan Information and Communication Technology (ICT) consumers. The association was officially launched on March 20 in Kampala.

This 89-page report documents the task force's abusive response to alleged rebel and terrorist activity by unlawfully detaining and brutally torturing suspects.Human Rights Watch found that agents of JATT, as it is known, carry out arrests wearing civilian clothes with no identifying insignia and do not inform suspects of the reasons for their arrest. The agents force suspects into unmarked cars, blindfolded and handcuffed, and take them to JATT's headquarters in Kololo, a rich suburb of Kampala. Many are then taken to military intelligence headquarters in Kitante for further brutal interrogations.

In Uganda, a fast, cheap diagnostic test based on vinegar is invigorating the battle against cervical cancer. Health activists are raising money to put it in a mobile clinic and health officials are eyeing a national rollout.

People living with HIV in Uganda's northern region are facing critical shortages of essential medicines. Dr Paul Onek, director of health services in Gulu District, said supplies of malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and antiretroviral (ARV) drugs had all run out. "We last received TB drugs in January for only 400 TB patients."

The Parliament of Uganda strongly condemned homosexuality during its session on Wednesday 15 April where Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo presented a hard-hitting statement that the country should not compromise on the values it stands for. Following Buturo’s statement, several MPs also condemned homosexuality and called for stern action.

The lack of strong political institutions and the over-bearing influence of the Executive are reversing Uganda's democratic gains, a new report says.Launched in Kampala, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) country review report remains critical of the 2005 lifting of Presidential term limits particularly the process of removal which coincided with a Shs5 million payment to MPs.

Northern Ugandans uprooted during two decades of fighting between the Government and a notorious rebel group are continuing to return home, the United Nations humanitarian arm has announced. The clashes between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) drove nearly two million people from their homes, devastating infrastructure and services.