The Nigerian government has drafted a plan for a national health insurance program that would eventually provide coverage for "all Nigerians," but certain individuals with "[h]igh-cost illnesses" such as HIV/AIDS would not be eligible to join, the Lancet reports.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has brought charges of criminal defamation against journalist Nnamdi Onyenua, report the Independent Journalism Centre (IJC), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Onyenua, editor of the weekly, Lagos-based magazine "Glamour Trends", was arrested on 8 June. The charges resulted from an article entitled "Secrets Behind Obasanjo's Trips" that appeared in the magazine's 6 June edition.

A powerful Nigerian security chief was quoted on Tuesday as saying he handed over cash worth millions of dollars, plus 23 cars and 45 homes to the former military ruler Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1998.

The World Bank will loan Nigeria and Burkina Faso more than $100 million to fight HIV/AIDS under the bank's $500 million HIV/AIDS Program for the Africa Region. The no-interest loans, which will be funneled through the World Bank's International Development Association, will go toward scaling up HIV/AIDS prevention strategies already established by the countries' governments.

Most of the former passengers of a Swedish-registered ship which landed in Nigeria just over a week ago are seeking asylum there, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said in Geneva on Friday.

Oil giant Shell suffered another major spillage at the weekend in the eastern division of the Niger Delta, 'The Guardian' reported on Tuesday. The leak, at Ogbodu village in the Ikwerre Council area, spread through the Choba River to the Calabar Creek because of the fast flow of the river, the Lagos-based newspaper said. Dead fish could be seen floating on the surface of the water, it added.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has written to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo expressing its concern over the recent arrest of the editor of a weekly magazine on charges of criminal defamation.

I was introduced to the Kabissa newsletter a few months back. I look forward every week to the latest edition and have found the newsletter very rich in information and in keeping abreast of happenings and practices around Africa. As a gender activist, I have found all sections quite interesting and educative as well. Thanks for the good work. I hope to have the opportunity soon of sharing the information especially on gender, fundraising, advocacy, courses and seminars and jobs in print form as most of the people I relate with are not connected to the web.

Ethnic clashes that began two weeks ago in central Nigeria's Nassarawa State have spread to Lafia, the state capital, where more than 25 people have been killed, Radio Nigeria reported on Tuesday.

It is fortuitous that a seemingly innocent request for data by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Professor Jerry Gana, may yet unravel the deep-rooted scam in the yearly federal budget.

NIGERIA on Monday became the first developing country to contribute to a new global fund to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic worldwide. At a press conference here on the first day of a three-day special session convened by the United Nations General Assembly to discuss ways of tackling the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, President Olusegun Obasanjo announced a US$10 million donation to the fund on behalf of the Nigerian people and government.

Several people have been killed and hundreds displaced in a fresh outbreak of fighting in central Nigeria between members of the Tiv ethnic group and neighbouring Hausa speakers, AFP reported on Thursday.

The Nigerian National HIV Vaccine Plan is the national strategy for developing a vaccine that addresses HIV strains peculiar to Nigeria and the West African sub-region. A product of a consultative process including a consensus workshop held in Abuja in February, the national vaccine plan will guide the vaccine development process in Nigeria. A draft copy of this strategic document is now available on the Nigeria-AIDS website.

Writers from around the world, who are under threat of persecution, may soon be able to find sanctuary in Nigeria.

About 69 trafficked Nigerian girls are deported monthly, wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Titi Abubakar, has said. Addressing youth corps members during an awareness campaign at the NYSC orientation camp in Kubwa, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory, Mrs. Abubakar lamented that between March and April this year, about 1,126 of such girls had been deported.

The Nigerian government has ratified five of the eight core conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions against child labour, 'The Guardian' newspaper reported on Thursday. The ratification was disclosed by Godfrey Preware, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity, at the 89th plenary session of the ILO which ended in Geneva recently, the paper said.

Two Nigerian human rights groups have called on the police and the federal authorities to take urgent steps to end the spate of extrajudicial killings being carried out across the country, 'The Guardian' Lagos daily reported on Friday.

The United States Secret Service has provided the Nigerian government with a list of secret foreign accounts operated by highly-placed officials, a report said Monday. The numbers of the accounts and names of the officials have been forwarded to the police and the presidency, the report by the News Agency of Nigeria said.

The website, a project of Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria, is designed to be the one-stop online resource centre to access up-to-date information on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and all 16 countries of West Africa. On the website, visitors will find the latest statistics on HIV/AIDS in West African countries; over 200 HIV-related abstracts, research reports and presentations on HIV in the Nigerian/West African contexts; the entire versions of the recently-launched HIV/AIDS Emergency Action Plan for Nigeria; publications, reports and studies on media and HIV/AIDS in Africa.

There is a new publication of Women's NGO Networks in Nigeria: "Providing Reproductive Health Information and Services; Promoting Reproductive Rights". This profile documents the significant contributions of women's NGO networks in Nigeria that provide reproductive health information and services and/or promote reproductive rights.