Nigeria

Over 200 people, mostly women and children, were murdered in the early hours of yesterday following attacks on Dogo-Na-Hawa, Ratsat and Jeji villages in Foron district, Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State.

A Federal High Court in Abuja, Wednesday, okayed a request by former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr. Farouk Aliyu, to void the January 27 resolution passed by the Economic Council of the Federation, ECF, giving President Umaru Yar'Adua a clean bill of health.

Soldiers patrol a street in Bauchi during the Boko Haram crisis last year.

Nigerian Police spokesman Yemi Ajayi Monday says 17 officers have been detained for questioning after a video supposedly showed officers executing people after religious rioting.

President Umaru Musa Yar'adua's long medical sojourn in Saudi Arabia ended early this morning when two planes landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja. While the first plane, an air ambulance, landed at 1.47am, a second one, the presidential aircraft, landed at 1.54am.

Nigeria's leadership of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was extended for another year last night as Acting President Goodluck Jonathan was elected the new chairman of the sub-regional body.

Hassan Shehata can coach Nigeria at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa if he wishes, according to the Egyptian Football Association.

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has moved to unify the Presidency. His action comes against the backdrop of the bad blood generated by the failure of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to forward a letter to the National Assembly on his medical vacation and the subsequent appointment of Jonathan as Acting President by the lawmakers.

The National Assembly has passed a resolution empowering Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to step in the saddle as Acting President, pending the return of ailing President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

Yar'Adua has been receiving treatment at King Faisal Specialist and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, since November 24, last year.

About 108 suspects arrested in the aftermath of the sectarian riot in Jos, Plateau State during which hundreds of people lost their lives and properties worth billions of naira were destroyed, were arraigned yesterday before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

PRESIDENT Umaru Yar'Adua will hand over to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan after transmitting a letter of his medical vacation to the National Assembly, the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji said yesterday.

Three flow stations in the oil-rich Niger Delta have had to be closed after a pipeline was sabotaged, according to Royal Dutch Shell.

The company said the Jan. 30 leak on the Trans Ramos oil pipeline was due to sabotage, but no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

THERE were strong indications, yesterday, that the plan to fly ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua to Nigeria may have been delayed by unavailability of required air ambulance for the President's condition.

Yar'Adua, whose absence from the country in the last two months, has created tension in the polity, is said to be on life support machine at a Saudi Arabia hospital.

The Federal Government says it has so far prosecuted 109 people over the 2009 Boko Haram crisis in Borno state.

The Islamic sect, Boko Haram, in protest against western education, rampaged in August 2009, killing indiscriminately.

The human catastrophe arising from the eruption of sectarian crisis in Jos, Plateau State, two weeks ago has left at least 40,000 displaced.

Also, former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd), and former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Solomon Lar, have condemned in strong terms the destruction of lives and property, saying it is unacceptable.

Seven days into the latest round of sectarian crisis in Jos, capital of Plateau State and its environs, at least 150 bodies have been recovered from Kuru Karama, a village near Jos, the village head, Umar Baza, said yesterday, taking the unofficial death toll past 400.