Global environmental watch-dogs have launched an inquiry into an alleged plot to export wild gorillas from Nigeria to Malaysia using a false permit and in defiance of international agreements on the sale of rare animals.

Can economic and social justice ever be realised together, or is it acceptable to sacrifice one for the other? For those who live outside of Africa, the routine of corruption in government can be difficult to comprehend, but for those Africans living under continual corruption and in ongoing poverty, is the money all that matters? After more than three years of legal wrangling that yielded little in the way of results, the Nigerian Federal Government has finally achieved a major breakthrough in its efforts to recoup a substantial sum of the country's money looted by the late General Sani Abacha and stored in Swiss bank accounts.

Borno State Governor, Mala Kachalla in Maiduguri. launched a project intended to alleviate the suffering of women in dire need including widows, vesco-virginal Fistula (VVF) patients, women living with HIV/AIDS, lepers and the mentally sick.

An agreement worth US $68.5 million to help the governments of eight northern Nigerian states to address rural poverty has been signed at the headquarters of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)in Rome.

A government programme to fight HIV/AIDS - billed as the most ambitious of its kind in Africa - is being jeopardized by a low turnout. The government is subsidizing the cost of a generic drug-cocktail, but the stigma attached to having the virus is preventing people from coming forward.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has apologised to all Nigerians for the misdeeds of past leaders. "At this moment in history, I, as chief executive of the federation, and being at the pinnacle of leadership in the country, am prepared to accept that the proverbial buck of the blame stops at my desk. I therefore wish to offer my full apology to all Nigerians in general, and to direct victims in particular, for all the misdeeds ...," he said.

Corruption should be classified as a crime against humanity subject to trial in the World Court in the same way as many world leaders are being tried for crimes of genocide.

As the nation waits for parliament to pass into law a bill on Child Right Derivation, Nigerian children have called on the federal government to establish a Child Rights Monitoring Body to oversee the effective implementation of the law. The call, among other issues, marked the proceedings of a "mock" parliament staged by children to mark this year's children day celebration at the International Women Centre in Abuja.

A Sharia court in Katsina will meet today to consider the appeal of a 30-year-old woman condemned to die by stoning for adultery, a woman's rights groups said.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), recently facilitated a media mission to Kaduna and Bauchi states, regarded as educationally disadvantaged. As the world celebrates children, Andrew Ahiante, who was part of the mission, writes on the gains of sending girls to school.

The political consensus that brought President Olusegun Obasanjo to office in 1999 has evaporated and he faces a big challenge to retain power. "So far Obasanjo does not appear to have the firm support of any of the blocs. He might still get it but time is not on his side," Tekena Dokubo, a university teacher and political analyst, told IRIN.

Unregistered political parties in Nigeria have filed a suit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)over what they say are unconstitutional registration guidelines for political parties.

The Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) has submitted its preliminary report to President Olusegun Obasanjo with a strong recommendation for compensation to be paid to victims of human rights violations as a way of achieving genuine reconciliation.

The Chief Judge (CJ) of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Mohammed Saleh, has called on area court judges to shun corruption, abuse of power and other acts of indiscipline. Saleh, who said the judges must appreciate their nearness to the grassroots, spoke in Abuja at the opening session of a five-day national workshop for area and Sharia court judges, organised by the National Judicial Institute (NJI).

Democratisation of Nigeria has suffered setbacks because the press has not set the proper agenda for its citizens. The Governor of Enugu State, Chief Chimaroke Nnami said in Abuja on Monday, while delivering a lecture to mark the 2002 press week of the Abuja council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) pointed out that it was strange that the press could fail or deliberately refuse to appreciate the enormity of the duty in bringing up the citizenry who have just emerged from a brutalising and crushing age of prolonged militisation.

ICAS is mobilizing petitions to the Nigerian government to pardon second women Ameneh Lava who became pregnant after separating from her husband from stoning to death.

Barely two months after the discharge and acquittal of Safiya Mohammed by a Sharia Court of Appeal in Sokoto, another case involving a housewife, Rabi Bello, from Gawon Nama area in Wamakko Local Government Area of Sokoto State who was dragged before the Upper Area Court in Sokoto for abortion has now become a centre of attraction.

Can economic and social justice ever be realised together, or is it acceptable to sacrifice one for the other? For those who live outside of Africa, the routine of corruption in government can be difficult to comprehend, but for those Africans living under continual corruption and in ongoing poverty, is the money all that matters?

An eight-man rapist gang, which specialised in raping young girls, has been arraigned before a Sharia court in Bauchi, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported.

Journalists have been disallowed from covering proceedings of a 15-member Christian Peace Committee probing the death of 14 worshippers in Enugu, South East Nigeria. At the resumed sitting of the committee led by Justice Anthony Aniagolu last week, evidence from two witnesses who appeared before it including the former Governor of Old Anambra State, Chief C.C. Onoh, were taken in camera.