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.
Thousands of people have gathered in Vatican City to celebrate Easter Sunday. Pope Francis will lead the mass in St. Peter's Square right in front of the St. Peter's Basilica, BBC reported.
An Indian-American woman in north Texas, accused of killing her son and leaving his body in the bathtub for four days, claims she did so in accordance with her Hindu beliefs.
Two notorious brothers in Pakistan who were arrested in 2011 on charges of digging up about 100 graves, stealing the bodies and eating them were released after two years in imprisonment. They have been held again.
Children born to expatatriates, who have married Saudi women, will be treated as Saudis for work, education and medical purposes, Sulaiman Al-Yahya, director-general of Saudi Arabia's passports department said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has written to South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressing condolences over the sinking of the ferry "Sewol" in which at least 14 people were believed drowned.
