The UN refugee agency said on Wednesday that most of the Zanzibari refugees remaining in Dadaab, northeastern Kenya, could be voluntarily repatriated within not much more than a week.

Tanzania is determined to see to it that no child is denied the right to education just because parents cannot afford to pay, and the government has committed itself since July to providing basic primary education free of charge to all, Tanzanian envoy Christine Kapalata told a UN General Assembly debate on child rights on 26 October.

A consortium mandated by the Tanzanian government to evaluate the state of corruption in the country has launched an internet appeal and questionnaire in an effort to increase public participation in the anti-corruption campaign.

The World Bank on Wednesday announced its approval of a US $150 million interest-free credit to support the government's efforts to improve education quality, expand school access and increase school retention at the primary level.

The former governor of Rwanda's Kigali-Rural prefecture, François Karera, was arrested on Saturday in Nairobi, Kenya, and immediately transferred to the detention facility of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, the Tanzania-based court reported.

Director-General of Tanzania's National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Andrew Kitua has said the institute received a request for permission for testing of an alleged new HIV/AIDS treatment that South African researchers are conducting on Tanzanian soldiers, but that the trials had not yet been approved, the South African 'Mail and Guardian' newspaper reported on Friday, 5 October.

The Government of Tanzania has decided to make Participatory Policy Research, in the form of Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPAs), a routine part of its Poverty Monitoring System. As such, future PPAs will be firmly enmeshed in national level planning processes. This does not imply that their findings will be irrelevant to Local Authorities. At the very least, PPAs will play a critical part in shaping the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Sector Plans that provide the framework of common values and understanding that orient, organise and empower pro-poor development planning at all levels of Government.

Zanzibar islands are famous for many things. Their exquisite beaches and splendid resorts are a haven for holiday makers. Their spices make many chefs around the world very proud of their work and the involvement in slavery adds a dark side to an otherwise illustrious past. The Islands are now home to the Zanzibar International Film Festival (Ziff) of the Dhow Countries now in its fourth year. The festival, arguably the largest cultural event of its kind in East Africa, has effectively tapped into their rich and diverse historical and cultural heritage.

Mining Watch Canada and the NGO Working Group on the Export Development Corporation join with environmental and human rights groups in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Tanzania to call for an independent investigation into allegations of mass killings and forced relocation of small scale miners at the Bulyanhulu gold mine in Tanzania in 1996.

TANZANIA is far behind other East African countries to achieve World Health Organization (WHO) standards as far as the ratio of doctor to patient is concerned and the Ministry of Health is now inviting private investors to train more doctors.

The number of households affected by last month's tremors in Rungwe District southern Tanzania has risen to 259 from the previous 181 following a house to house check by ward leaders.

The nongovernmental organisation Refugees International, which has lately been focusing intensely on the conditions and climate within refugee camps in Tanzania, has told a visiting US Congess delegation of the great need to support education programmes and initiatives to make the refugees more self-reliant.

Communicable diseases like malaria, AIDS, tuberculosisi, diarrhoe, intestinal helminthanon are the most prevalent diseases in the Pemba and Unguyja islands in Zanzibar, Tanzanai. A number of research instistutes including WHO have collaborated effectively to generate information on communicable disease control in the affected islands.

Three journalists were arrested by police in the Mara region while following up on ethnic clashes in the Tarime district. The arrested journalists are Dismas Ayuke of the daily Kiswahili private paper "Majira", Erick Nampesya of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and Richard Mgamba of the Nairobi-based English weekly private paper "The East African".

While the delivery of development services has been made more efficient, and the gross domestic product (GDP) of Tanzania has grown by 5 per cent in recent years, poverty-reduction measures are not yet reaching the rural poor, and HIV/AIDS poses such a threat that it could reverse all the gains recently achieved, according to the UN country team for Tanzania.

A Japanese education grant to provide schooling for Tanzanian children forced to work due to poor economic conditions, has been lying idle for nearly a year now.

In January 1998, Singer Rankin, along with other members of the WWF Board of Directors, visited Tanzania. While there, they were introduced to the Udzungwa Mountains Women's Development Project. Started a few years before, this program has grown from an endeavor to introduce fuel-efficient stoves to local women, to a women-based enterprise that includes a restaurant fueled by such stoves and an outreach program that includes helping women learn how to run businesses. Local women are now conserving a biological treasure, protecting their source of water, and generating income for their families. WorldWomen-Work is providing general funds to support this successful win-win program.

The President of the semi-autonomous Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar, Amani Abeid Karume, on Monday denied accusations by the human rights watchdog Amnesty International that the administration was holding political prisoners. Amani invited Amnesty to send representatives to Zanzibar to "witness what was happening for themselves," according to Tanzanian radio.

The Prime Minister of Tanzania, Frederick Sumaye, has said that tough pre-conditions were making it difficult for Tanzania to take advantage of debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, the 'Guardian' newspaper reported on Tuesday.

President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, where two million people are infected with the HIV virus, has said he is confident the country should be able to reverse the spread of the disease in the next five years, given the current level of nationwide mobilisation against the epidemic. "We are now at a stage of all-round mobilisation that will result in the total reversal of the trend in the next five years," the UNDP quoted Mkapa as saying at a press conference in New York last week to coincide with the UN General Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS.