Nigeria

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.

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