Two European firms building the controversial Bujagali hydro-electric power plant in Uganda have stopped work on the project amid talk of financial difficulties for the main contractor, U.S. energy giant AES Corp, corruption probes and complaints from Uganda that the project is highly overvalued.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative, Daouda Toure, has asked the Government to double its current water and sanitation expenditure as a primary solution to the high infant mortality rates in the country.

Uganda's National Resistance Movement (NRM) government is planning to call a national referendum to decide whether a president can stand for more than two five-year terms, sources said last week. But opposition politicians said it would be difficult to sell the referendum idea, dismissing the exercise as intended to "use the people's name to legitimise decisions already made by the Movement".

A further 450 Congolese refugees crossed into Uganda on Monday, alongside the last departing battalion of the Ugandan army.

The Deputy CD will report to the Country Director and be responsible for the management of IRC field offices and Kampala-based program staff. The Deputy CD will delegate daily field office operations to the IRC Field Managers' administrative, financial, and logistics' and concentrate on improving program quality and reporting, increasing representation to district and national government, increasing representation to peer NGOs and donors, and increasing IRC and implementing partner staff training.

When generic medicines entered the market in Uganda, the price of patented medicines fell dramatically, reinforcing the view that an important determinant of price, and therefore accessibility of drugs to fight HIV/AIDS, is competition from generic medicines. This was one of the conclusions of Oxfam research into the accessibility of ARV therapy in Uganda since 2000.

An international fundraiser is required to raise funds in the region between US$50,000 - 250,000 a year for the next five years for the Orphan's Hope Project - Uganda. We would like to hear from interested individuals, groups or associations, organisations and or foundations world-wide.

The current crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo vividly illustrates how marginal our part of Africa is in terms of world politics. Note that in a period of only four years, since 1998, more than four million people, mainly Congolese and Rwandese nationals, the latter having fled to Congo after the Rwanda Patriotic Forces took over power in Kigali in 1994, have been killed. Unfortunately, the attention that the West and the broader international community have focused on this area, in terms of resources and the commitment to resolve this conflict, has been dismal at best, says this commentary.

Women's organisations in Uganda have voiced mixed reactions to Vice President's Specioza Wandira Kazibwe decision to resign from her post. Kazibwe, a medical doctor by profession, reportedly wrote to President Yoweri Museveni asking to be relieved of her position in order to pursue a PhD at the Harvard School of Medicine in the US. A presidential spokesperson confirmed Kazibwe's resignation, but told IRIN that the president had not yet appointed a replacement. Until her resignation, Kazibwe was the only female vice president in Africa. She was appointed after Museveni came to power in 1986. However some Ugandan women argue that although her appointment as vice president raised the profile of women in politics, she failed to use her position to positively influence key policies in favour of women.

As wildlife authorities step up anti-poaching operations to curb illegal trafficking of endangered birds, poachers of the African Grey parrot have devised ways of beating the system. The New Vision has learnt that poachers illegally hunt the parrots and later get permits from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

As of 30 April 2003, the Ugandan Ministry of Public Health has reported a total of 277 cases of cholera with 35 deaths in March and April 2003 in Bundibugyo district, with most cases located along the Semliki and Lamia rivers.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has put the number of refugees who have fled into Uganda to escape fighting in the Ituri District of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at between 15,000 and 20,000, the UN agency reported on Monday. Earlier reports had estimated the number of refugees entering Uganda through the border districts of Nebbi and Bundibugyo at 60,000 between them.

The Ugandan government has been urged to adopt a consistent approach in dealing with the rebel Lords Resistance army (LRA), and avoid contradictions which have so far undermined trust between the parties during peace efforts for northern Uganda. The Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU), a coalition of 40 non-governmental organisations working with civilians affected by the conflict, also urged the two sides to renew their commitment to peace building and national reconciliation.

Donors and civil society organisations have joined together to deplore corruption in Uganda's government, which they say is endemic from the top right down to local administrative levels.

A cholera epidemic, which has affected parts of western Uganda since January, is persisting amid fears that a fresh influx of refugees from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo could exacerbate the situation.

A high school guidance counsellor’s office in Kampala, Uganda, was big enough for Deborah Serwadda to offer career advice and aptitude tests, but it was far too small to cope with the physically abused kids, runaways and their disintegrating families that routinely waited outside her door. A privileged upbringing as the eldest of seven children of an Anglican priest had prepared Serwadda to be an educator, and she had all the right credentials. "It wasn't enough," she says. "These kids were so badly off." She volunteered at Hope After Rape, a non-governmental organisation set up by a woman psychiatrist to counsel the rape victims who in Uganda were traditionally shunned, as though the rapes were somehow their fault.

Joseph Kony, the leader of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has fled Southern Sudan with about 300 fighters and 600 captives to northern Uganda, security sources said.

Two hundred ethnic Hema refugees were airlifted from Bunia in eastern DR Congo on Sunday and given what we assume is temporary sanctuary at Old Entebbe Airport as the security situation at home spun out of control. In Bunia, there are real fears of an implosion that would set off a long-feared orgy of killings. As the Uganda People's Defence Forces withdraw from Ituri province, they are leaving mayhem in their wake. It is extremely confusing that the Lendu militia, who only recently were supposed to enjoy Ugandan patronage, are now the ones fomenting chaos.

Inside the hot, stuffy hearing room, already two months into the case of forgotten bank accounts and unexplained fleets of luxury four-wheel drive vehicles, Justice Julie Sebutinde loses her temper - again. She wags her finger at the witnesses, employees of Uganda's notoriously corrupt tax authority. "Today, I am going to have you for lunch and supper," she barks. Ms. Sebutinde, a petite, fiery mother of two, is the Ugandan government's weapon of choice against corruption. Her investigations of the police department, the military, and most recently, the tax authority, have exposed graft that has managed to shock a country where public skimming rarely surprises anyone.

Angry demonstrations broke out last week at a refugee camp in western Uganda over the government’s decision to relocate thousands of Sudanese refugees to two locations in the West Nile region of northern Uganda.