Monday, 2 February 2004
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Nigeria, Cameroon move to normalise relations

The presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon say they have made "significant progress" in resolving a long running border dispute. President Paul Biya of Cameroon and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo also agreed to conclude a non - aggression pact and exchange ambassadors. The two made their comments after meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. And according to Nigeria's President Obasanjo, the two countries need the helping hand of the international community:

"Helping hand in the area of confidence-building measures, helping hand in ensuring that all our border we can move freely and we can provide the infrastructure that will strengthen cooperation and collaboration."

For his part, President Biya of Cameroon says the two countries could reach a normalisation of relations if they continued this way with the implementation of the roadmap for the resolution of the dispute.

Annan notes progress by Nigeria, Cameroon to defuse border row

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the adoption of a comprehensive work plan by the two countries. At the same time, he appealed to the international community to provide the necessary resources for the demarcation process as well as confidence-building measures:

"I noted that the progress achieved so far has proven that neighbouring states can, with minimum help from the United Nations, work together to prevent border related conflict and settle their differences peacefully."

The meeting is the third between the three leaders since October 2002 when the International Court of Justice ruled that the Nigerian-controlled Bakassi Peninsula should be ceded to Cameroon.

Chemical weapons convention enters into force in Libya: OPCW

Libya will begin to meet its international disarmament and non-proliferation treaty obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention as of Thursday this week. A team of international inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons -OPCW - travels to Libya this week to verify the country's compliance with its international obligations. Spokesman Peter Kaiser tells UN Radio that the Organization stands ready to provide Libya with any assistance and support it requires:

"If there are any chemical weaponsthere, they will be secured and after they're secured, they will be destroyed and any industrial activity that might be relevant is double-checked and declared and if there had been or is any chemical weapons production facility we'll make sure they're inactivated and destroyed."

Libya renounced all weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons last December.

Global coalition launched for women with AIDS

A Global AIDS Coalition to improve prevention and treatment for young women and girls with HIV/AIDS was launched Monday in London. The Global AIDS Coalition on Women and AIDS - a grouping of organizations and individuals, also aims to address violence against females and legal and social inequalities that make women more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that half of the 40 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS are women.
UNAIDS figures show that women in Africa are especially more likely to be infected with HIV than boys or men.
The head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Dr. Peter Piot, said "all these injustices and discrimination have become more lethal because of AIDS."

WHO advises measures to curb spread of bird flu

Wear protective clothing, vaccinate yourself against human influenza and wash your hands frequently. These are the recommendations of the World Health Organization to people charged with slaughtering millions of poultry in an effort to stem the spread of bird flu. WHO says areas where birds are killed should be kept equally clean and anyone exposed to infected poultry should be put under the close observation of local health authorities. At the same time, the UN health agency says the strain of bird flu ravaging poultry farms across Asia cannot spread easily between humans.
Vietnam and Thailand are the only countries among 10 Asian nations tackling outbreaks of bird flu, to have confirmed any human fatalities or infections.