Professor Adebayo Williams, popular columnist and author of The Remains of the Last Emperor was home recently from his base in the United States. He spoke about his new work and issues concerning the state of Nigerian literature, publishing and the reading culture.

The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) has received $300 million in foreign assistance to further its work, Chairman of the Commission, Justice Mustapha Adebayo Akanbi, has said.

The National Intelligence Council predicts that by 2010 the current AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa may be dwarfed by the five populous countries of India, China, Russia, Nigeria and Ethiopia. The government agency foresees double or triple the estimate of 25 million AIDS cases experts made last summer.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has taken the olive branch to the National Assembly in his determination to end a stand-off between the executive and legislature. But beyond the impeachment threat of the National Assembly are other roadblocks in his 2003 race, if the president plans to achieve his stated goal of winning another term.

Nigerians marked their 42nd year of independence on Tuesday in a grim and fearful mood, as Africa's most populous nation stumbles on from one political crisis to the next. For thirty of its 42 years Nigeria was ruled by a series of brutal military dictators, each one vying to see who could plunder the greatest share of the nation's growing oil wealth. Hopes that civilian rule would bring better fortunes have proved to be short-lived.

Computer laboratories are to be placed in 102 schools throughout the country and arrangements made for electronic links to schools in the United Kingdom, South Africa and South-East Asia, officials have announced.

Senior leaders of the ruling African National Congress have asked President Thabo Mbeki to appeal to his Nigerian counterpart, President Olusegun Obasanjo, to grant a pardon to Amina Lawal, the woman living under threat of being stoned to death for alleged adultery.

Nigerian children have launched a campaign for a better future and called on the Federal Government to improve their welfare. The children, who made a case for their future at a one-day Summit on the Nigerian Child, asked the President Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration to articulate and implement a policy on children and also table a bill on the Nigerian child before the National Assembly.

As African telecoms cease to be state-owned, pressure for change will increasingly come from the new private companies' consumers. By any standard, Africa's telecom customers are badly treated: they often have to put up with long queues to get a landline service, billing is often erratic and unclear, there are no transparent service obligations and even with competition, little evidence of a "service culture". As one of the continent's largest markets, Nigeria is a case in point.

Fourteen individual plaintiffs filed a class action suit against Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport, plc, on September 20 for alleged human rights abuses in Ogoniland, Nigeria. The complaint, filed by Philadelphia-based class action law firm Berger & Montague, uses the federal Alien Tort Claims Act to charge violations of customary international law relating to Shell's oil operations in Ogoniland, an area north of the Niger delta in southeast Nigeria.

Circumcised women experience sexual arousal and orgasm as frequently as uncircumcised women, according to a study in Nigeria. The researchers also found no difference in the frequency of intercourse or age of first sexual experience between the two groups of women. These findings remove key arguments used to defend the practice, they say.

A local content study prepared by the Fantsuam Foundation, an APC member in Nigeria, is examining how communities in Nigeria are using information and communications technologies (ICTs) to document traditional healthcare knowledge.

One of the most apparently successful operations ever mounted to recover funds looted from a developing country by a dictator has fallen apart. Nigeria has been forced to resume legal action to seize funds plundered by Sani Abacha, the country's corrupt former ruler, following the collapse of an out-of-court financial settlement with his family worth more than $1bn.

Kabissa is a partner in Nigerianet, a bold new initiative to create a presence on the Internet for Rights groups in Nigeria. The project, funded by the European Commission and led by the British Council, will enable donors and groups to share information, build partnerships, and access learning opportunities. Nigerianet will incorporate an online database-driven tool that will for the first time provide direct, easy access to essential information for the Nigerian rights community, including organization profiles, project information, an events calendar, news and learning opportunities.

A combination of violence, fraud and mismanagement prevented the registration of almost a third of Nigerians who turned out to put their names on the electoral roll this month, the country's Catholic church has claimed.

Corruption and the systematic looting of the state is the focus of this in-depth analysis of Nigeria from 1960 onwards, by one of Nigeria's leading writers on political matters. The author reveals the methodical way in which the state has been plundered over forty years, giving particular attention to General Abacha's regime and personality. The financial scandals of the government of his successor, General Abubakar, are also examined.

Detained Mohammed Abacha has been freed by President Olusegun Obasanjo. But Abacha will have to restrict his movement within the country and the Abacha family is expected to comply with an agreement to pay over $1 billion to the Federal Government.

As a regular receiver of your newsletter, I find each edition logical, educative and entertaining in some cases. But particularly I want to specifically commend the Pambazuka News 77 edition. The editorial on the article "The Missionary Position: NGOs and Development in Africa" is simply superb. (See for the editorial and full edition.) It encouraged me to download the complete article from the Internet and I must say I am thrilled by the quality of work done.

Despite a one-day extension of voter registration, reports from across the country at the close, indicated that millions of eligible Nigerians, could still not register.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has targeted vulnerable youths and their parents through the media, as part of an information campaign against human trafficking.