The Government should put in place a system to prosecute individuals who misuse Universal Primary Education (UPE) funds, development partners said yesterday. USAID deputy mission director Elzadia washington said although the Government had recognised education as productive for the future of Ugandans, the sector suffered from corruption, including ghost teachers and pupils.

Talks aimed at ending two decades of fighting in northern Uganda, were given a boost on Wednesday (1 November 2006) with the signing of a revamped truce in Juba, south Sudan, officials said. The Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) ended a week-long impasse when they penned the landmark agreement. Under the latest ceasefire, the LRA will return to two previously abandoned neutral sites in southern Sudan which they had fled fearing attacks from the Ugandan army.

Ugandan and American Aids researchers have begun the first ever clinical trial of a vaccine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through breast-feeding which, if successful, could prevent at least 25,000 infections in new-borns in East Africa alone. In the first phase of the trials the researchers will be testing whether the vaccine, formally known as ALVAC-HIV, is safe for use in children, following which they will study whether it can stop the transmission of the Aids virus to a suckling baby through breastmilk. Preliminary results are expected in mid-2007.

White African reviews five blogs from Uganda. "I don’t know any of these bloggers, but found them all compelling reads in their own way."

The following examination brings to light the significant barriers to self-reliance for refugees in the settlement system in Uganda, the inconsistent conceptualisation of self-reliance embedded in the program and the flawed approach to refugee empowerment.

A consultant appraising the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) E-Learning initiative has urged the Government to support local E-Learning materials development. The NEPAD E-Learning, also known as the E-Schools initiative, aims at achieving a 50% internet accessibility for all people in Africa by 2015.

The Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) has expelled 18 pregnant students. The university coordinator, Hajji Abbas Samaali, said the students, many of them in their first year, were expelled after an impromptu medical examination.

Every October 24, the world joins together to commemorate the United Nations day. The UN Charter was drawn up by representatives of countries at the UN Conference on International Organisation, which met at San Francisco from April 25 - June26, 1945. The Charter was signed on June 26, 1945. The UN officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, when the Charter was ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, the US and a majority of others.

THE Minister for Water and Environment, Ms Maria Mutagamba, has said Uganda will soon start following her own environmental policies other than those of the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Mutagamba was on Wednesday speaking at the opening of a consultative workshop in Kampala, on promoting the use of a Ugandan system to address environmental and social safeguard issues.

The African Minister's Council on Water (AMCOW) will converge in Kampala this week (October19-20) to deliberate on ways of making water a priority as a resource in human development. It is widely recognised by water experts that availability of adequate water both in quantity and quality is critical for achieving all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The government has conceded that the law on adultery is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Principle State Attorney Patricia Mutesi representing the Attorney General in a petition filed against the government challenging various provisions of the law regarding adulterous acts, told a panel of five Constitutional Court Judges led by Justice George Engwau that section 154 of the Penal Code Act regarding adultery is unconstitutional.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on Tuesday demanded an urgent review of its ceasefire agreement with the Ugandan government, claiming that the army had opened fire on rebel fighters on their way to an assembly point in southern Sudan.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) suggested on Wednesday the country adopt a federalist system as a way of ensuring peace after 20 years of conflict in northern Uganda. In the revised LRA proposals, made under the talks’ second agenda on comprehensive solutions, the rebels say Uganda should be governed under a federal system of government, insisting that this would ease tensions and ensure general stability.

ANTS Uganda is a project within the organisational framework of I-Network Uganda which is a non-profit organisation and a national network consisting of individuals and organisations from the private sector, government and civil society. I-Network provides a platform for sharing knowledge and forming partnerships around the use of ICT to address development challenges and to extend equitable national development.

A split among top LRA commanders and the diaspora community that has been supporting them is threatening the future of the Juba peace talks. "Within the LRA, there is a split between those who are tired of fighting but are being held back, and those who don't want to go to Congo like Thomas Kwoyelo," a source said.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. What is the message during the month? Breast lumps are very common in women but some of these lumps can be dangerous. In most cases when such lumps are identified, they are removed and examined by the doctor to determine whether they are cancerous or not. When found cancerous the immediate advise is to undergo the treatment.

The Lords Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony, has lashed out at Members of Parliament from northern Uganda, currently in Juba on an observation mission, accusing them of taking an inducement of Shs60 million each to "to mess him up."In a two and a half hour teleconference with the MPs and members of the LRA peace negotiation team, a rather infuriated Kony told off the legislators and said, "You MPs are all useless, you have been bribed with Shs60 million each to come and mess me up."

Two out of seven National Forestry Authority board members have resigned after refusing to respect the Cabinet 's directive that Bidco Palm Oil takes over Kalangala forests. The resignations have been followed by that of the forest conservation organisation's legal counsel, Ms Georgina Kugonza.

Two years down the road the defeat of the Lords Resistance Army rebels in Teso, time seems to have come for the internally displaced persons to bid farewell to camp life. When the rebels invaded the region on July 15, 2003 through Obalanga Sub-county, little did we know that the attack would culminate into massive displacement.

President Yoweri Museveni has said Uganda will expect Washington's support to hunt down the LRA's top leadership if the Juba peace talks do not yield a comprehensive peace agreement. At a State House meeting with Mr John Edwards, the North Carolina Senator, who was candidate John Kerry's running mate in the 2004 US presidential race, Mr Museveni hinted that with the peace talks mired in a circus of generic proposals between the parties, Plan B may already be in motion.