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Nigerian anti-graft investigators have seized money raised by the head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to support US presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would give the money back to those who attended a gala dinner in Lagos last month. The EFCC said it had seized 74m naira ($630,000, £314,000), but said no Nigerian laws had been broken. US political parties are not allowed to receive contributions from abroad.

Anti-corruption authorities have seized more than $630,000 (£315,000) raised during an "Africans for Obama" gala dinner held in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos. Hundreds of the city's high-society elite and business leaders paid up to £11,000 for a table at the glitzy fundraiser, but police intervened when it became clear that US laws prohibit overseas donations. Staff from Barack Obama's campaign team said the Democratic presidential hopeful was in no way connected with the "Africans for Obama" organisation and added that no money from the group would be accepted. The organiser of the August 11 event, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, chair of the...

China’s influence in Africa is extending to Nigeria, a country that has historically exported the majority of its oil to Western countries. In Nigeria, the majority of the exported oil is currently destined for the U.S. and Western Europe. China, however, is becoming increasing important to the African country. ............................. In exchange for a $4 billion investment on infrastructure, CNPC was given first refusal rights on four oil blocks. Over the past few years, through continued patience and geopolitical prowess, the pendulum has been swinging in China’s direction. Nigeria has reportedly favored Asian investors, who are more willing to offer...

A Nigerian religious leader with 86 wives has accepted an Islamic decree ordering him to divorce all but four of them, local authorities say. A spokesman for the emir of Bida told the BBC that Mohammadu Bello Abubakar, 84, agreed on Saturday to comply with the decree.

(IsraelNN.com) A Nigerian group threatened to break off negotiations for the release of kidnapped Israeli businessman on Thursday night, using the excuse that Israel National News had referred to its members as "terrorists" in a story published earlier Thursday. The group, the "Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta" (MEND), denied responsibility for kidnapping the 60-year-old Israeli businessman who was working in Nigeria but offered assistance in negotiations for his release. According to a report in Reuters, MEND, which is comprised of indigenous gunmen, said Thursday evening that the Israeli hostage "has been located and seems to be a...

A recent Reuters/Zogby poll showing that Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) now leads Senator Obama in the race for the presidency failed to faze Obama. “These are narrowly focused polls,” Obama pointed out. “They underestimate the global surge behind my message of hope and change.” The Illinois Senator cited a recent iPhone poll showing he has a 37 point lead over his Republican rival as evidence that “the people of the planet Earth are responding to my message. I have support from every corner of the globe. My opponent’s backing comes almost exclusively from the 58 states that make up the...

LAGOS - Nigeria's anti-corruption police were questioning the head of the stock exchange after she organised a gala dinner in support of Barack Obama's U.S. presidential campaign which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Nigeria's Islamic authority has told the man who has 86 wives to choose only four and repent within three days or else he will be sentenced to death. The Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) passed their verdict on Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, according to Sharia law. This comes two weeks after the Nigerian press and the BBC reported on the case. Talking to the media then, Mr Abubakar challenged Muslim scholars, saying there is no punishment stated in the Koran for having more than four wives. However, Mr Abubakar advised other men not to follow his example and marry 86 women....

CALABAR, Nigeria (AFP) - Nigeria on Thursday handed over the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon to end a 15-year dispute over the territory believed to be rich in oil and gas. < > After a drawn-out legal battle, the ICJ ruled in October 2002 that the peninsula should be given to Cameroon. It based its decision largely on a 1913 treaty between former colonial powers Britain and Germany.

I WITNESSED the launch, on Friday, July 18, 2008, of the Africans for Obama 2008 group, which, for the time being, at least, is said to be a non-profit-making and non-governmental organisation, masterminded by the ebullient and versatile lady, Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, PhD, OON, chairman of Transcorp and Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, a Federal Government parastatal. The event took place at the Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi, Lagos . In her keynote address, which she delivered with aplomb and information, and almost extempore, the well-informed professor drew attention to the fact that "history is being made in the United...

Scientists have detected for the first time in Nigeria a new strain of the virus that causes avian influenza -- also known as bird flu -- a United Nations agency announced on Tuesday. The find comes in the wake of Nigeria recently reporting two new highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks in the states of Katsina and Kano, the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. "The detection of a new avian influenza virus strain in Africa raises serious concerns as it remains unknown how this strain has been introduced to the continent," said Scott Newsman, an international wildlife coordinator...

A 50-year-old Muslim man, who allegedly made a blasphemous statement against Prophet Muhammad, was beaten to death in Kano on Saturday. The man was killed at Sheka Aci Lafiya quarters when some angry Muslim youths besieged his house and beat him to a state of coma. He died shortly after a team of police and Hisbah officials rescued him from the mob, the police said. The man died as he was being rushed to the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital. Witnesses told Daily Trust that the man, though a Muslim, made a statement residents considered as blasphemous against the Holy Prophet...

The Nigerian Navy yesterday said it had uncovered a plot by a group of retired officers to destabilise the government from one of its barracks in Lagos. The naval authorities did not reveal details of the threat but said that the group, allegedly led by two retired naval officers in Lagos, had been going round some naval formations, particularly, the Nigerian Navy Town, Ojo, Lagos, to "poison" the minds of other naval personnel.

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

    Horror ... Remi Fakorede    Mum's finger horror in court     By STAFF REPORTER Published: 02 Aug 2008     A MUM caused uproar in court when she pulled two fingers from her handbag and said they belonged to one of her children. Mother-of-six Remi Fakorede, 46, now behind bars for a “breathtaking” £925,000 tax credit fraud, claimed they had fallen off as a result of a strong “voodoo” curse that had been placed on her and her family and forced her into crime. One juror burst into tears while the “horrified” judge immediately adjourned the case...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

JOHANNESBURG – A Nigerian government official on Monday said Zimbabwean farmers have found a new home in the west African country to continue farming on the African continent. “Our state alone has 15 Zimbabwean farmers who have relocated," deputy governor of Nigeria's Nasarawa state John Michael Abul told the South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum in Johannesburg. Thousands of white Zimbabwean farmers have lost their land following President Robert Mugabe’s haphazard land reform programme that started in 2002 and has led to the destruction of the country’s once vibrant farming sector. Often violent and chaotic, Mugabe’s land seizure replaced productive white farmers...

<p>Nigerian rebels claimed Monday they had sabotaged two Shell pipelines in Nigeria's main oil producing region, sending the price of crude climbing on international markets.</p> <p>The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed "heavily armed" MEND fighters had attacked the pipelines in the southern Rivers state operated by Shell.</p>

China and India have agreed to build oil refineries in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region instead of only buying crude oil from the area. The crude oil will be refined in Nigeria and the product oil exported. This will not only boost the development of the local economy but also help to alleviate the country’s unemployment situation. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, but its limited refining capacity has left the country relying heavily on imports. Industrial Info Resources reported Tony Chukwuemeka, Director of Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources, as announcing that three Chinese oil giants—China National Petroleum Corporation (Beijing), China...

ELIZABETHTON — An Elizabethton woman has been indicted by a Carter County grand jury on charges she had participated in an international Internet scam. Investigators interviewed Ouchaib on Jan. 24, during which time she told the police she had been receiving money from all across the country and forwarding it to a man in Lagos, Nigeria, who was known by many names, but most commonly as Elinmian Jonathon Smith. She had been conducting the transactions since December 2006.

A baby boy died in an Italian hospital after his Nigerian parents performed a circumcision at home, police said. The mother, 24, and the person who performed the procedure might be charged with manslaughter, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. The 2-month-old boy began bleeding heavily. He was taken to a hospital in Bari, but doctors there were unable to save his life. Fabio Ferri of Bambin Gesu Hospital in Rome told the news agency even hospital circumcisions can be risky because the penis holds a large amount of blood. He said the procedure should never be done outside a...

Chevron Pipelines Attacked In Nigeria and Columbia; FARC May Be Responsible In Columbia Monday, July 07, 2008 In the ongoing matter of Chevron and Nigeria comes a report from UPI declaring that "Nigeria attack cripples Chevron". Moreover, the same report points a finger at militant groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). And while there's no recorded link between MEND and Chevron accuser Larry Bowoto, it seems the two have similar aims: to cripple Chevron's presence in the region, as well as that of Royal Dutch Shell. Consider this UPI report: Chevron Corp. has declared...

BEIJING, May 14 -- China announced Monday that it had launched a Chinese-manufactured communications satellite into orbit on behalf of Nigeria, marking the first time China has built a commercial satellite and put it into orbit on contract for another country. The launch, in Monday's pre-dawn hours from the Xichang space center in southwestern Sichuan province, was viewed as another sign of China's increasing prowess in space and its determination to be among the world's great powers seeking to utilize the reaches of outer space for benefits on Earth. The country's space agency, which is managed by the military, sent...

HONG KONG - China Development Bank may be turning its attention from taking a piece of troubled Citigroup to investing in Nigeria, seizing an opportunity to channel its monumental resources toward the oil-rich West African country. China Development Bank is one of the three policy banks created by Beijing, placed under direct jurisdiction of China’s State Council and charged with funding major infrastructure projects. It is in talks to buy a $5 billion stake in Nigeria's United Bank for Africa, the biggest financial institution in West Africa by asset value. The Chinese lender is bargaining for some management control of...

FROM MATHIAS OKWE, ABUJA REPRIEVE may not be long in coming to the nation's pitiable infrastructure as China has promised to help out with about $50b (six trillion naira). The fund according to the Finance Minister, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman is to help rehabilitate the nation's contemptibly poor infrastructure. Already, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between the Africa Finance Company (AFC) on the one hand; and the Managing Directors of Zenith Bank, Oceanic Bank and First Bank on the other on behalf of other Nigerian financial institutions with the Chinese Export Credit Guarantee Agency called SINOSURE for the...

Niger Delta: What Britain must do • Monday, Jul 14, 2008 The first impression is that Britain does not yet understand the Niger Delta struggle and would not care to find out; even though Britain under the colonial administration, initiated the Henry Willink’s Commission of 1958 to give special attention to the Niger Delta. Being former colonial masters of Nigeria, Britain should have taken interest in the Niger Delta crisis long ago because of the ability of the crisis to endanger the peace and unity of Nigeria. Even as a frontline member of the international community, Britain ought to have...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Nigeria said on Wednesday they would set up a security training force to help the West African country tackle lawlessness in its southern oil producing Niger delta region. The announcement coincided with an attack by gunmen on Nigerian security forces in their boat in the Niger Delta. Five people were killed and several wounded in the shootout, army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa said. He said about 30 armed men in speedboats had attacked a navy boat that was guarding key oil facilities in southern Rivers state. Nigeria is the world's eighth biggest oil exporter,...

MORE than 40 members of the Deeper Life Church in and around Umuolighe in Alaoma community near Omoba in Isialangwa South Local Government Area of Abia State died mysteriously at the weekend shortly after a family deliverance prayer session. The incident, which occurred early Saturday morning, came to people’s knowledge on Sunday. Nigerian Tribune gathered that one Mr. Martin Iheukwumere, a zonal coordinator of the Deeper Life Bible Church, had organised the family deliverance in his newly-built house in the community and had invited other church workers and family members. Sources also said since he built the house, he had...

Justus Nduwugwe Abuja China's drive into Africa's financial services sector has taken a fresh turn, with China Development Bank entering a partnership with United Bank for Africa, one of Nigeria 's biggest banks. The deal, sealed last month is expected to expand the Chinese bank's ability to finance infrastructural projects in Africa . News of the agreement follows last week's announcement that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, another state bank, was buying a 20 per cent stake in South Africa 's Standard Bank for $5.56 billion. CDB has not bought equity in UBA, which is listed on the Nigerian...

LAGOS (AFP) — The most high-profile rebel group in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta said Thursday it was suspending a two-week-old unilateral ceasefire and threatened British interests in the region. In an e-mail sent to AFP, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it would resume armed operations from midnight Saturday. The group had declared a unilateral ceasefire on June 22 in order "to give peace and dialogue a chance". MEND said its decision to resume armed attacks was linked to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's promise at the G8 summit in Japan to support the Nigerian...

By Nick Tattersall LAGOS (Reuters) - One of China's top engineering firms has signed a $1 billion deal to build a road around the volatile Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, the hub of Africa's biggest oil industry, the AFC development bank said on Sunday. The deal makes Beijing a key development partner in the Niger Delta, home to Nigeria's 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) oil industry, where poor infrastructure and a lack of investment have fuelled a campaign of violence by militant groups. China Harbour Engineering Co. (CHEC) signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Finance Corporation (AFC)...

African Immigrants Among Obama's Enthusiastic Backers By Darryl FearsWashington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page A08 A catered fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama was held recently at Duke's City, an upscale restaurant and bar nestled amid the hip new condominiums in the District's U Street corridor, where up-and-coming white professionals are slowly taking over an area that was once mostly black. But the owner of Duke's City, Donato Sinaci, is not one of Obama's many young, white supporters. And the host of the event, Michael Endale, is not a native-born black American. They are members of Ethiopians for...

West African bushmen are denied U.S. visas They'd been recruited to build a mud-hut village at a Staunton museum Thursday, Jul 03, 2008 - 12:55 AM By CARLOS SANTOS TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER • PDF: Letter STAUNTON -- Three West African bushmen recruited to build an authentic mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia were denied visas because they are too poor and inarticulate. In a letter to Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., Debra Heien, chief of the consular section for the U.S. in Nigeria, said one applicant "could not articulate anything about the project. . . . The...

LAGOS: An Islamic court in northern Nigeria has sentenced a female singer to two months in prison or a 5000 naira [$43.28] fine for giving a concert, the official NAN news agency reported Tuesday. Talatu Mai-Gurmi, 34, was sentenced by an Islamic tribunal in the state of Bauchi. NAN said she was arrested by men from the Islamic police along with two other performers who took part in the same concert, which featured traditional music. The singer pleaded guilty, the agency said. In his judgment, tribunal President Malam Garba Dan-Baba said the court had ruled the singer had contravened articles...

A lower Shari’ah Court in Shira Local Govern-ment Area of Bauchi State has sentenced a 34-year-old female singer, Talatu Mai-Gurmi, to two months imprisonment or N5,000 fine for staging a traditional musical concert. The convict was arrested by the Shari’ah enforcement agents, Hisba, with two other singers, Dan-Kawu Mai-Garaya and Odoji Mai-Kotso, for allegedly contravening the shariah law. The incident occurred at Yana, headquarters of Shira local government area of the state. While Mai-Gurmi pleaded guilty to the one-count charge, Mai-Garaya and Mai-Kotso pleaded not guilty to the offence which contravened sections 95 and 365 of the sharia penal code....

A Washington woman was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison and five years of supervised release for her role in an Internet counterfeit check scheme. Edna Fiedler pleaded guilty in March to attempting to defraud U.S. citizens in a scheme known as a Nigerian check scam. Fiedler helped her accomplices in Nigeria send fake checks to people who had agreed to cash the checks on behalf of the sender, keeping some of the proceeds and sending the rest back. The Nigerians found people willing to cash the fake checks via e-mail. They would send their names as well...

Armed youths blew up a Nigerian crude oil pipeline operated by U.S. major Chevron, a militant group said on Saturday, cutting more output from the world's eighth largest oil exporter. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it was contacted by youths claiming responsibility for Thursday's attack on Chevron's Abiteye-Olero crude pipeline. The military said about 120,000 barrels per day of crude oil production was shut by the sabotage. "For production to have stopped, this shows the damage was serious," said the government's Army Brigadier-General Wuyep Rintip, head of the Joint Task Force in the western...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria's main militant group carried out the latest in a spate of oil-pipeline bombings Monday, cutting output from Africa's biggest oil industry and pressing its demand that the government send more oil money to the region. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said the sabotage of a pipeline-switching station marked the anniversary in office of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who took power May 29, 2007, with a promise to calm the oil region. The militants, who are turning their focus from military-style raids to bombings with propaganda value, said the attack was intended...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Islamists under the auspices of a paramilitary force last week destroyed six churches to protest a police rescue of two teenage Christian girls kidnapped by Muslims in this Bauchi state town. Police recovered the two Christian girls, Mary Chikwodi Okoye, 15, and Uche Edward, 14, on May 12 after Muslims in Ningi kidnapped them three weeks ago in an attempt to expand Islam by marrying them to Muslim men. Police took the two girls, who had been under foster care, to safety in southeastern Nigeria where their biological parents live. The kidnappers had taken the girls to Wudil town in...

Nigeria's Anglican leader has told the country's many Christian polygamists to give up their extra wives. In a letter to the faithful, Archbishop Peter Akinola warned the issue could "make a mockery" of the church. Until now, converts to Christianity have been allowed to keep their polygamous relationships. Bishop Ali Buba Lamido told the BBC that it was difficult to convert polygamous Muslims to Christianity unless they could keep their wives. Bishop Ali Buba of the Wusasa diocese in northern Kaduna State, said that as much as 10% of some congregations in the north can be in polygamous marriages. Nigeria...

Musa Mogadi says he is better off since "the whites" came. He's got a new job, learned new farming skills, and he can chat on a mobile phone while zipping around the countryside on a motorbike. Three years ago, Mr. Mogadi got by as a subsistence farmer. But he now earns a regular wage as a supervisor on one of this town's new commercial farms. He's applied skills he learned from some of the two dozen white Zimbabwean farmers who moved to Nigeria in 2005, after being kicked off their land by President Robert Mugabe and later attracted by large...

LAGOS (Reuters) - Rebels who have stepped up attacks on Nigeria's oil industry in the last month said on Sunday they were considering a ceasefire appeal by U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has launched five attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta since it resumed a campaign of violence in April, forcing Royal Dutch Shell to shut more than 164,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). "The MEND command is seriously considering a temporary ceasefire appeal by Senator Barack Obama. Obama is someone we respect and hold in high...

Things are slow. Students are doing finals this week and last. I'll be busy correcting about 24 test papers next week. I may be moving from my house. The property manager is demanding we pay for water, electricity, salary for "gardener", and night security. He and I have had several nose-to-nose discussions. He was down on his knees begging me to leave but now my lease is up. I'd rather stay there but it's up to John. He thinks he can get a better place for less. The Nigerian couple across from me are moving, the American man across the...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

LAGOS (AFP) - Police in the northwest Nigerian state of Kebbi, home to the Argungu fishing festival, have released on bail this year's champion, arrested last week for allegedly smuggling his winning monster catch already dead into the river, a police chief said Sunday. The fishing champion, somewhat confusingly called Bello Argungu, was arrested Friday on suspicions of having smuggled a dead 65 kilogram (140 pound) fish into the river before the start of the picturesque festival. He then pulled his "catch", which drew gasps of admiration, out of the river and walked off with prizes that included a car...

SOKOTO, Nigeria (Reuters) - A flat expanse of rubble is all that is left of a compound where the Shi'ite community used to gather for meetings in the heart of Sokoto, a historic Muslim city in remote northwest Nigeria. Many Shi'ite residents fled when security forces razed the compound last year during a crackdown on Shi'ites after the murder of a Sunni cleric in a nearby mosque. But their departure has failed to quell anger among Sunnis. The incident reveals tensions simmering in a city that has huge importance for Nigeria's estimated 70 million Muslims -- most of whom are...

After 28 years, Kano state still refuses to grant approval to beleaguered congregation. DAWAKIN KUDU, Nigeria, March 5 (Compass Direct News) – The Kano state government has refused to grant approval to a church in this northern Nigerian town for 28 years, further emboldening area Muslims to attack it numerous times, the pastor said. Since Christmas 2006, said pastor Jacob Bako of the local Evangelical Church of Christ in Nigeria, local Muslims have set fire to the congregation’s makeshift worship place three times. Due to the church’s lack of official permission, its worship place is located in an abandoned housing...

A Nigerian man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for dressing up as a woman and loitering around Lagos international airport, court officials said Tuesday. "He pleaded guilty to the charges and was given 18 months without the option of a fine during his trial on Monday," an official at the court in the Lagos suburb of Ikeja told AFP. It was not clear what Uche Ndubuisi was hoping to achieve with his transvestite antics, but 22 pairs of women's pants, four bras as well as several make-up kits were used as evidence to convict him.