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.
Yet another Indian American, Puneet Talwar, a longtime White House national security staffer, has been confirmed by the US Senate to the key job of serving as a bridge between the state and defence departments.
Crimea is seeking to join Russia rather than win independence like in the case of Abkhazia, Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksenov said Friday even as it was announced that some 50 foreigners from 21 countries will be present as international observers during Sunday's referendum.
Venezuela's Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz in a telephone interview with a state-run TV channel said Thursday three National Guard members were among the dead, and of the injured, 109 were police or military personnel
Morocco is winning the fight against terrorism particularly through the promotion and dissemination of moderate Islam as an antidote to religious fundamentalism, according to a leading Italian daily.
