Kampala- Governmental support for conservation programs and improved security in Africa's Great Lakes Region have led to an increase in the number of mountain gorillas by five per-cent in the past seven years, ecologists said on Saturday.

There are now 780 endangered gorillas dwelling in the thick bamboo forests blanketing a mountainous enclave shared among the three states of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Kampala- The trial of a former Ugandan health minister, his two deputies and a presidential aide accused of embezzling millions of dollars of international aid got under way in Kampala Friday.

Former health minister and army general Jim Muhwezi and his co-accused are charged with misappropriating two million dollars from funds provided by the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI).

The three health officials are also implicated in another case involving the theft of up to 45 million dollars from the Global Fund, which was created to finance the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Kampala - At least 20 people died and 13 were injured when a bus plunged into the swollen waters of a river in northern Uganda, police officials said Wednesday.

The bus, which was carrying 35 passengers, swerved off a bridge over the River Aswa, north of the region's main town of Gulu, on Tuesday night.

"The bus was loaded with people when it fell into the river," Deputy Police Spokesman Samson Lubega told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Kampala - An estimated 34,000 inmates in Uganda's prisons and remand centers may starve to death if government does not quickly release an equivalent of about 10 million dollars to buy them food, an independent newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting legislators.

"With this budget line, we are going to see prisoners starving and others going naked without uniforms," The Daily Monitor quoted a member of parliament Theodore Ssekikubo as telling a committee of parliament Monday.

Kampala - Two of three officials of Uganda's influential Buganda kingdom arrested late last week were charged with treason and terrorism Friday in a magistrate's court in the capital Kampala.

Bugandan Deputy Information Minister Medard Lubega faced the treason and terrorism charges while the head of the monarchy's civic education committee, Mrs Betty Namboze Bakireke was charged with treason. They both were released on bail.