The Director of the PATH/AYA Uganda project office provides day-to-day management of the Kampala office and its staff, representing PATH/AYA at partner meetings and is accountable to the Adolescent Health Strategic Programme Leader and senior PATH management for ensuring that project deliverables and timelines are met. Ideal candidate will have experience living and working in Anglophone Africa with demonstrated cross-cultural skills.

Continuing violence backed by Rwanda and Uganda in Ituri and Kivu provinces, as well as in other areas could "derail" the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), warned representatives of the Congo government last Friday.

Vincent Matovu, managing editor of the local Luganda-language weekly "Mazima", has been held on remand in Luzira prison since 6 January 2003, in connection with the publication of two articles concerning the war between rebel groups and government forces in the north of the country.

Vincent Matovu, managing editor of Mazima, a Ugandan weekly, was remanded in custody on two counts of sedition on 6 January. Matovu denied the charges before magistrate Suzan Kanyange. He was remanded until 21 January. Prosecutor Acio Marion alleged that Matovu, 34, published a seditious article about Joseph Kony and the Ugandan LRA rebels in November 2002.

The Uganda Red Cross (URC) at Mpondwe border in Kasese district have expressed concern over the rising number of Congolese refugees entering the country.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has protested over the Ugandan government's crackdown on live outdoor radio broadcasts of the views of ordinary Ugandans. "This is just a means of preventing people from debating national issues and making themselves heard," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter to Information Minister Basoga Nsadhu, while calling on him to allow the broadcasts to continue.

Non-governmental organisations have asked political leaders to step up the fight against child torture and neglect in homes, reports Charles Kakamwa. Shamila Galiwango, the chairperson of Kigulu Development Group (KDG), on Thursday said some leaders had taken no action against child abusers, leading to the increase of such cases.

Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is a non-governmental organisation initiated to develop the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) among women as tools to share information and address issues collectively. WOUGNET requires an information/researcher officer to strengthen the delivery of WOUGNET programs. Women are particularly encouraged to apply.

Uganda's new Media Council says it will soon visit media organisations to vet the qualifications of journalists - and order the dismissal of those they deem under-qualified. The state wants staff without formal journalism qualifications barred from working in media houses.

Testing and treating pregnant women for HIV reduces the likelihood of infecting the child. But do women want to know if they have HIV? Researchers with the Medical Research Council programme in Uganda investigated how rural women feel about counselling and testing for HIV during pregnancy. While most women are prepared to undergo testing, they are worried about confidentiality and the behaviour of medical staff.

A Ugandan minister has said her country will not accept Rwandan refugees who have left Tanzania seeking asylum, according to the privately owned Kampala newspaper, the Monitor.

Since coming to power in 1986, Uganda's National Resistance Movement (NRM) has made significant strides towards including women as partners in the country's development and decision-making process. But tradition dies hard, and Ugandan women complain there is still a long way to go.

Work on a future rhino sanctuary in Nakasongola district has started. Rhino Fund Uganda Executive Director Yvonne Verkaik said in a statement that over 1200 square meters of bush had already been cleared for an airstrip where flown in rhinos, tourists and emergency veterinary supplies will land.

Over 10 mountain gorillas are believed to have been lost after a series of raids this year by poachers in the Virunga volcanoes (Rwanda and DR Congo and Bwindi national park). The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has expressed concern over the recent wave of poaching and kidnapping of the endangered mountain gorillas whose population now stands at 670.

Testing and treating pregnant women for HIV reduces the likelihood of infecting the child. But do women want to know if they have HIV? Researchers with the Medical Research Council programme in Uganda investigated how rural women feel about counselling and testing for HIV during pregnancy. While most women are prepared to undergo testing, they are worried about confidentiality and the behaviour of medical staff.

Uganda was one of the first African countries to face the AIDS epidemic. Prevention programmes began in the late 1980s with strong political commitment. A study by the Medical Research Council Programme on AIDS in Uganda suggests that these efforts have produced a fall in HIV prevalence (the total number of people infected) and incidence (the number of people newly infected each year).

The translation of an eviction notice into the local languages has delayed the eviction of pastoralists who have illegally occupied wetlands in the Teso region, a wetlands monitoring officer, Francis Sabino Ogwal, said recently.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said there is continued sexual harassment of female staff at various workplaces and called for an urgent law to address the matter. This is contained in the Gender Needs Assessment draft report done by the ILO Gender Project. It covered several government departments, National Organisation of Trade Unions and Federation of Uganda Employers.

Lt. Gen. Salim Saleh has said that he did not take any bribe from Emmanuel Katto in order to help the businessman win a government contract to supply MI-24 helicopter gun-ships.

Uganda is known as the star-pupil of the IMF in Africa. During the last ten years, the country pursued IMF policies of fiscal austerity combined with structural adjustment, and also implemented a far reaching poverty reduction strategy. Based upon these achievements, Uganda was the first country to benefit from debt relief under both the original and enhanced frameworks of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. But the star-pupil of the IMF does not have a sustainable level of debt even after reaching the HIPC completion point twice – a devastating result for the whole HIPC initiative.