A US$550 million hydroelectric dam project on the White Nile in Uganda violates World Bank policies that require prior assessment of a project's economic viability and impact on the environment, the bank's internal watchdog panel said in a report. It said the plans also "do not mention or even consider resettlement or compensation of people working in tourism activities" in the Lake Victoria area "who may lose their assets and primary source of income as a result of the project."

OVER 50% of children below 10 years of age have been sexually abused, the chairman of Uganda Child Rights NGO Network (UCRNN), Basil Kandyomunda, has said.

The Uganda People's Defence Forces is not bound by time in its pursuit of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) inside Sudan, where the LRA had bases from which it was launching attacks in northern Uganda, an army spokesperson has said. Under an agreement concluded between the Ugandan and Sudanese governments in March, the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) were authorised to pursue the LRA inside Sudanese territory, within limited periods.

The situation of relative stability obtaining in northern Uganda - boosted by improved relations between Uganda and Sudan, and the Ugandan army's subsequent assault on the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) - has translated neither into reduced displacement in the troubled region nor the return of children abducted by the rebel group, according to a new donor update from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Magistrate in charge of the family and juveniles court, Matilda Ssengooba have urged women to aspire for political positions in leadership at any level without fear during the world YWCA membership celebrations in Kampala.

Uganda is in the process of reshaping its defence policy so that it can run military incursions into neighbouring states to attack rebels there. Defence Minister Ruth Nankabirwa said the move was part of a four-year defence review programme to set out Uganda’s strategic goals and move its army into a post conflict era.

A new policy for internally displaced persons (IDPs), which the Ugandan government is formulating with support from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA), has reached the last stage of consultations and is expected to be ready for implementation soon, according to a senior official in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

A disarmament programme for the Karamojong in Uganda is being used as an excuse for systematic brutality, writes a special correspondent. Army elements have seen the disarmament as an opportunity to exact revenge on the feared and despised pastoralists, taking their cattle, persecuting, and killing.

The World Food Programme (WFP) revealed last week that about 80 Sudanese refugees enter Uganda everyday. This daily influx adds to the approximately 50,000 Sudanese already living in refugee camps in northern Uganda.

THE Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has banned two wild animal exporting companies over permit fraud. The cancellation of the licences follows investigations into cases of altering permits and fraudulent exportation of thousands of reptiles.

The Uganda Women Parliamentary Association and the Coalition on the Domestic Relations Bill have agreed to lobby President Yoweri Museveni and the First Lady to support them on the Bill.

The United States has donated $16m for AIDS vaccine research in five countries including Uganda. The US Department of State said in a statement the money would be given to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), an NGO facilitating AIDS vaccine research. The money will be spent on designing and testing candidate AIDS vaccines.

CHIMPANZEE trafficking is still alive. In a surprise twist of events, the illicit trade has sucked in diplomats and expatriates. They purchase the chimps for sale in Europe, the Middle East and other destinations using their diplomatic immunity. The New Vision has learnt that the chimps are kept as pets, used in circuses and medical research.

The May 27 issue of the New Republic examines how Uganda's "ABC" HIV/AIDS prevention program has primarily used behaviour modification to lower HIV infection rates and how that model could be applied to the rest of Africa. ABC, which began in 1987 after President Yoweri Museveni became aware that many soldiers in the army were HIV-positive, stands for "Abstain, Be Faithful, or wear a Condom." The program focuses primarily on abstinence before marriage and fidelity inside of marriage, and has "little to do" with condoms.

Mpanga Primary School is situated inside the Kahunge Refugee Resettlement Scheme in Kamwenge District, southwestern Uganda. Here, a group of Ugandan displaced people - originally expelled from Tanzania - who arrived overnight on May 6 are starting to gather around aid workers who are distributing clothes, food, hoes and domestic implements. The Ugandan returnees are part of a group of 3,027 Ugandans, mainly ethnic Bakiga cattle herders, expelled from Tanzania in late 2000, allegedly for voting against Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party in elections in October 2000.

Facing threats of arrest, the Ugandan acting army commander, Maj-Gen James Kazini, testified on Monday before a six-member judicial commission set up by the government to investigate allegations of the nation's involvement in the illegal exploitation of natural resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the commission's chairman, Justice David Porter, a British expatriate, told IRIN on Tuesday.

Makerere University Urban Planning female students broke the long silence and made a shocking revelation that some of their lecturers coerce them into sex for marks.

The Uganda Women Parliamentary Association and the Coalition on the Domestic Relations Bill have agreed to lobby President Yoweri Museveni and the First Lady to support them on the Bill. The decision was reached at a meeting chaired by UWOPA chairperson, Loice Bwambale, at Parliament Buildings in Kampala.

UGANDA is to host a five-day conference for environmental ministers from Africa ahead of the 10th commemoration of the Earth Summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Angela Luh of the United Nations Environment Programme told a press conference on Monday that the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) would take place in Kampala in July.

Although Congo's ongoing conflict was an important part of discussions Uganda president Yoweri Museveni held with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, as the first phase of his 10-day working visit to the United States ended Tuesday, Museveni stayed firmly "on message" in his campaign to project Uganda's trade and investment opportunities and the need for industrialized nations to remove protective barriers.