The clouds of smog that daily blur the skyline of the central business area of Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, are the most obvious signs that air pollution is a major problem in one of Africa's biggest cities. Less obvious is the increasing toll on the health of the city's 12 million residents.

A legal battle began on Tuesday between former Nigerian military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida, and the government over a probe into an unsolved 16 year-old murder of prominent journalist Dele Giwa, which occurred during Babangida's reign. Nigeria's Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) in its report to President Olusegun Obasanjo last month recommended the prosecution of Babangida and two former intelligence chiefs for the murder of Giwa by parcel bomb in his Lagos home on 19 October 1986.

Two leading activist groups in Nigeria's volatile Niger Delta oil region have accused President Olusegun Obasanjo's government of aggressively developing offshore oilfields in order to abdicate its responsibilities to the region's impoverished people.

Nigeria is among five countries in the world with the largest number of children not in school, a World Bank statement, released in Abidjan, has said. The statement said that the five countries accounted for 50 million of the estimated worldwide total of 113 million children out of school and that the World Bank and donors would collaborate with them to address areas that needed to be resolved for them to be eligible for Education For All (EFA) grant financing support.

NO fewer than 18 persons have been killed in a violent clash between members of two rival secret cults in the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka. People believed to be secret cult members stormed the university in three vehicles including a Mercedes Benz car and started shooting sporadically at students within the Faculty of Engineering complex.

With women contributing 55 per cent of HIV positive adults, gender inequality has become a key variable in the incidence of HIV and AIDS.

Concerns about lack of financial transparency are resurfacing in Nigeria. The senate yesterday voted to debate in secret allegations that the government mismanaged finances, including almost $100m (ý68.4m) of stolen money recovered from the family of General Sani Abacha, the late dictator.

A three-day conference on the protection and development of the coastal and marine environment in sub-Saharan Africa opened in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Monday.

A behind the scenes deal between senators has derailed an opposition attempt to force President Olusegun Obasanjo to give details of the whereabouts of millions of dollars of public funds.

More than 85,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been resettled in their home villages in Nigeria's central region in the past two months, Red Cross officials said on Tuesday. The IDPs, mostly of the Tiv ethnic group, had fled ethnic and communal clashes that wracked the states of Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba and Benue between June and November 2001.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has urged the Nigerian government to take steps to domesticate international conventions on children's rights and create the proper environment to protect those rights.

Of 1,851 women interviewed in three Nigerian hospitals, 45% were circumcised. Circumcised women had significantly higher risks of tearing and stillbirths when all pregnancies were analyzed.

The World Bank has approved loans totaling US $237 million for Nigeria to improve its health sector and reduce poverty in urban areas.

Nigeria is potentially Africa's richest country. As the world's sixth largest producer of crude oil, with huge reserves of mineral and agricultural riches and manpower, it should be enjoying some of the highest global living standards. But available indicators point, ironically, to some of the lowest living standards in Africa, for a large majority of Nigeria's 120 million people. And the latest signs are that the situation may be getting worse.

A Nigerian NGO, the Environmental Impact Monitor (EIM), has voiced concern about plans for a floating production, storage and offloading vessel designed to be stationed in Nigerian waters for continuous oil processing for 20 years.

Women lawyers in the country have called on the Federal Government to seek judicial interpretation of the constitution on the issue of Sharia legal system in order to prevent continued human rights abuse on its implementation. The female lawyers made the call in Abuja when they visited President Olusegun Obasanjo under the umbrella of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).

Nigeria's Supreme Court has endorsed the federal government's anti-corruption campaigns, delivering a verdict that its anti-corruption agency is constitutional, valid and in force throughout the country, local media have reported. The Supreme Court ruled that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has power to arrest and detain corrupt officials in the country as a constitutionally functioning body.

Vigilante groups in south-eastern Nigeria are responsible for serious human rights abuses which are tolerated, and sometimes actively supported and encouraged, by state government authorities. "The Bakassi Boys: the Legitimization of Murder and Torture," a joint report by Human Rights Watch and the Lagos-based Centre for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN), documents scores of extrajudicial executions and hundreds of cases of torture and arbitrary detentions by the "Bakassi Boys," a vigilante group set up in 1998 to combat armed robbery.

Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria commenced a project to monitor coverage of HIV/AIDS in the print media in Nigeria over a period of 12 months. Under the project, JAAIDS will conduct analysis of media coverage of HIV/AIDS in selected national newspapers and magazines for frequency, accuracy and quality.

Despite Nigeria's commitment to human rights, the country is yet to append its signature to the optional protocol of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Making the disclosure in Lagos, Thursday, Lagos lawyer, Mr. Fred. Egbe, called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to go beyond the brands of paperwork and act on the instrument.