London - Police have identified the alleged Woolwich terrorist shown wielding a knife and meat cleaver in bloodied hands and ranting in the video released yesterday as Michael Adebolajo, a naturalized British citizen of Nigerian descent.

Maiduguri - The Nigerian government has issued a statement that claims that the military assault on Boko Haram insurgents was "yielding positive results" and that "available information confirm that the insurgents have been dislodged from theirs camps."

Sydney - Australia is pressing for a ban on geoengineering the oceans with iron sulfate, a process which came to prominence last year after an attempt was made to augment salmon stocks off the Canadian Pacific coast by adding chemicals to ocean waters.

Maiduguri - Reports say that the Nigerian military has launched attacks on Boko Haram training camps in the far northeastern region of the Lake Chad basin in Borno State. Nigerian authorities say about 30 militants have been killed in air raids by air force jets.

A new study has found that although 33 percent of Americans believe there is "widespread disagreement" among scientists that climate change is happening, there is an overwhelming consensus among environment researchers that it is happening.

Maiduguri - In a live broadcast on TV Tuesday, President Goodluck Jonathan admitted that Boko Haram insurgents have taken control of some villages and towns in the northeastern region of the country. He declared a state of emergency in three states of the region.

Maiduguri - In a video released Monday, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the radical militant Islamic sect Boko Haram, said that his group has kidnapped women and children in retaliation for arrests and detention of its members' families.

Sydney - There’s a huge market among Asians for whitening treatments and facial cosmetic surgery. As usual, the public image is wrong. The reasons are much more complex than “looking white”, despite urban myths. Feelings are mixed, and sometimes queasy.

The NOAA said on Thursday that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have reached 400 ppm, the highest level in at least 3 million years, scientists believe. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography recorded a slightly lower estimate of 399.73.

Bamako - According to the Nigerian Defense Headquarters (DHQ), a Nigerian Air Force jet deployed to operations in Mali crashed in Niger Republic Monday. Two Nigerian Air Force pilots died in the crash.

Maiduguri - Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released satellite images which reveal extensive destruction of civilian property following a military raid on April 16 and 17 in the northern Nigerian town of Baga.

Maiduguri - Authorities said on Sunday that about 185 people were killed in fighting between Nigerian soldiers and Boko Haram militants in Baga, a fishing community in Nigeria's northwest Lake Chad region in Borno State.

Lagos - In an interview with Sahara TV on Saturday, Richard Odusanya, a former aide to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, alleged that the ex-President maintained a squad of assassins.

Aliko Dangote, the African tycoon, plans to invest up to $8 billion in a new oil refinery in Nigeria. Nigeria's output will be doubled if this refinery is built.

For the second time this year the Royal Dutch Shell company has shut down a major oil pipeline in Nigeria's south in order to repair damage that was the result of theft.

A site created originally for use by the general public has become the hub of scams and Internet fraud. By posting an ad or responding to one, chances are you are likely to become a target for fraud.

Lagos - Televangelist Pat Robertson was asked on 700 Club Monday why "amazing miracles happen with great frequency in places like Africa and not here in the USA."

A Nigerian physicist Professor Francisca Okeke is one of the four winners of the 2013 L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science.

A UN report says six of the world's seven billion people have mobile phones but only 4.5 billion have toilets. In response to the statistics the UN has issued a call "to change a situation in which more people worldwide have mobile phones than toilets."

Chinua Achebe, aged 82, died in hospital in Boston, Massachusetts today, Friday March 22. The cause of his death is not known but he had been unwell for some time.