Sunday, January 31, 2016

oko Haram burns kids alive in Nigeria, 86 dead: officials

ISMAIL ALFA and HARUNA UMAR,Associated Press 8 hours ago 
DALORI, Nigeria (AP) — A survivor hidden in a tree says he watched Boko Haram extremists firebomb huts and heard the screams of children burning to death, among 86 people officials say died in the latest attack by Nigeria's homegrown Islamic extremists.
Scores of charred corpses and bodies with bullet wounds littered the streets from Saturday night's attack on Dalori village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees, according to survivors and soldiers at the scene just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and the biggest city in Nigeria's northeast.
The shooting, burning and explosions from three suicide bombers continued for nearly four hours in the unprotected area, survivor Alamin Bakura said, weeping on a telephone call to The Associated Press. He said several of his family members were killed or wounded.
The violence continued as three female suicide bombers blew up among people who managed to flee to neighboring Gamori village, killing many people, according to a soldier at the scene who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists.
Troops arrived at Dalori around 8:40 p.m. Saturday but were unable to overcome the attackers, who were better armed, said soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The Boko Haram fighters only retreated after reinforcements arrived with heavier weapons, they said.
Journalists visited the carnage Sunday and spoke to survivors who complained it had taken too long for help to arrive from nearby Maiduguri, the military headquarters of the fight to curb Boko Haram. They said they fear another attack.
Eighty-six bodies were collected by Sunday afternoon, according to Mohammed Kanar, area coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency. Another 62 people are being treated for burns, said Abba Musa of the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri.
Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets, increasingly with suicide bombers, since the military last year drove them out of towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria.
The 6-year Islamic uprising has killed about 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.
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World

British pilot killed by poachers in Tanzania; 3 arrested

CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA,Associated Press 8 hours ago 
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Elephant poachers in Tanzania fired on a helicopter on an anti-poaching mission and killed the British pilot, and authorities said Sunday that they have arrested three suspects.
Roger Gower was shot Friday while flying on a joint operation with Tanzanian wildlife authorities who were tracking the poachers, the Friedkin Conservation Fund, which oversees some wildlife areas in Tanzania, said on its website.
"This tragic event again highlights the appalling risk and cost of protecting Tanzania?s wildlife," the Texas-based group said.
Three suspects were arrested, said Jumanne Maghembe, Tanzania's minister for tourism and natural resources. The minister pledged that any other suspects will be arrested in security operations after the attack in Maswa wildlife reserve, near Serengeti National Park.
Lazaro Nyalandu, a former minister of tourism and natural resources, wrote on Twitter that Gower was killed by AK-47 assault rifle fire.
"You loved our country and I knew you on many flights we took together," Nyalandu wrote.
A co-pilot survived with injuries, Tanzanian authorities said.
Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the death of a Briton in Tanzania and said it was "providing assistance to the family at this difficult time."
Rangers discovered the carcasses of three elephants that were killed by the same group of poachers that fired on the helicopter, said Paschal Shelutete, spokesman for Tanzania's parks service.
Maswa, the park where Gower was operating, lies on the southwest boundary of Serengeti. The region's massive wildebeest migration passes through Maswa in January and February, according to the Friedkin Conservation Fund. The park's rangers encounter poachers on a regular basis, it said.
Tanzania has been identified as a key hotspot for elephant poachers. The elephant population declined by 60 percent to about 40,000 since 2009, according to a census announced last year
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Americans not believed among militants detained by Saudis: U.S. officials

Reuters 5 hours ago 
RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. officials said on Sunday they did not believe nine U.S. citizens were among 33 suspects detained on terrorism charges in Saudi Arabia over the past week, as reported by a Saudi newspaper.
The English-language daily Saudi Gazette, citing an unnamed source, on Sunday reported that four Americans were detained last Monday, followed by another five in the following days. Saudi authorities also detained 14 Saudis, three Yemenis, two Syrians, an Indonesian, a Filipino, a United Arab Emirates citizen, a Palestinian and a citizen of Kazakhstan, the report said.
Six U.S. officials told Reuters that the U.S. government could not confirm that any Americans were among the 33 suspects detained.
However, two officials said U.S. authorities were still checking names against databases. Saudi authorities were also investigating the citizenship of those detained, one of the officials said.
None of the U.S. officials was authorized to speak publicly, and the U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Saudi Arabia in 2014 declared Islamic State a terrorist organisation and has detained hundreds of its supporters. The group, which controls territory in Iraq and Syria, has staged a series of attacks in the kingdom.
On Friday an attack at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Saudi Arabia's al-Ahsa district in Eastern Province killed four people and injured 18, the latest in a string of attacks claimed by Sunni jihadists that have left over 50 dead in the past year.
The website of the Interior Ministry's militant rehabilitation centre listed four U.S. citizens as having been detained on Jan. 25 and four more over the previous three months. It did not list any more recent detentions.
The Interior Ministry spokesman directed Reuters to the website, which gives information on all people detained as militant suspects, but gave no further comment.
The ministry on Saturday identified one of the attackers in al-Ahsa as 22-year-old Abdulrahman al-Tuwaijri, a Saudi citizen, who detonated an explosive vest outside the Imam Rida mosque in the Mahasen district of Hofuf in al-Ahsa.
A 27-year-old was also arrested wearing an explosive vest and carrying hand grenades when members of the mosque's congregation seized him after he fired shots at them during the attack, the ministry said.
Attacks by supporters of Islamic State in Saudi Arabia include two bombings and two mass shootings at Shi'ite mosques. A mosque used by Sunni security services was also bombed
The Saudi clergy have denounced the group as "kharijites", an early Islamic sect reviled by Muslims for its extreme ideology.
(Reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh; additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Dan Grebler)
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Ten Million Reasons Why Falling Oil Might Hurt The Philippines

Bloomberg 8 hours ago 
Cheap oil should be a good thing for a country like the Philippines that imports almost all of its fuel, but there are 10 million reasons why that may not be the case. That’s how many Filipinos work overseas, many of them on rigs, tankers and as domestic help or construction workers in oil-producing nations in the Middle East. Together they sent home $22.8 billion in the first 11 months of 2015, around 10 percent of gross domestic product. The potential for a slowdown in remittances is being closely monitored, the central bank said last week. A prolonged period of oil at less than $30 a barrel could create an economic headache for the successor to President Benigno Aquino, who steps down in June, ...
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