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.
An Indian man was fined 2000 dirhams (about $545) by a Dubai court after being spotted in a UAE armed forces officer's dress that he wore to a Halloween party, a report said.
The South African government Tuesday appealed to the global community, the African Union (AU) and the Nigerian government to do whatever they can for the release of over 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram, a Nigerian radical group.
New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key Monday ruled out testing legal drugs, including synthetic cannabis, on animals, days after parliament banned the drugs' sale until proven as low-risk.
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has been named the Middle East’s Leading Airline for the eighth consecutive year at the World Travel Awards Middle East.
