Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has sent a bill to the National Assembly which seeks the establishment of a National Agency for the Prevention and Control of AIDS (NAPCA), news organisations said.

Nigeria has had an upsurge of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the last 10 years, with more than 200,000 people suffering from the disease every year, its health minister was reported as saying last week.

Authorities in the northern Nigerian city of Kano confirmed at least 18 dead Sunday, after two days of clashes between police and anti-US protesters. Others said hundreds may have died.

A Presidental order on the privatisation of Nigerdock may have prompted the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to redouble its efforts at meeting the October 15 deadline for the receipt of technical and financial bids on the company.

More than 3,000 Muslims on Sunday attended a rally in northern Nigeria's mainly Islamic city of Kano during which organisers expressed support for Osama bin Laden.