Boko Haram wants to swap kidnapped girls for jailed members
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 May, 2014 11:55 AM
Former Boko Haram negotiator, Shehu Sani has said the group plans to exchange the 300 kidnapped schoolgirls for its "comrades" in jails in Nigeria, media reported Friday.
Sani allegedly said that nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped last month in the country by Islamist militants could be released in exchange for its jailed comrades, the Nigerian Tribune reported.
He believed the video, in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau threatened to sell the girls as slaves, showed he was planning to use them as "bargaining chips".
Sani said he believed the footage, released Monday, was an attempt to persuade the Nigerian government to release the Islamist militant prisoners.
A total of 1,281 people died of infectious diseases on the Chinese mainland in April, the country's National Health and Family Planning Commission announced Thursday.
Pakistan Thursday conducted successful training launch of a short range surface-to-surface ballistic missile, capable of delivering nuclear and conventional warheads, the military said.
The Pakistan foreign ministry Thursday said an employee of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested this week for carrying ammunition does not enjoy diplomatic immunity.
Russia Thursday said that it has pulled back all its troops from near the Ukraine border even as Ukraine affirmed that it will continue its operation against anti-Kiev activists in the country's eastern region
Ukrainian acting President Alexandr Turchynov held talks here Wednesday with Jeffrey Feltman, the UN under secretary-general for political affairs, centering on political issues and the security situation in Ukraine.
