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.
On Saudi Arabia's new "Nitaqat" labour policy that saw some 140,000 Indian expatriates returning home, Almunajjed said only those working illegally were affected.
Creators of the US college entrance examination SAT have announced an overhaul of the test, eliminating mandatory essays, ending penalty for guessing wrong and cutting obscure vocabulary words.
Ukraine is not holding any talks on the deployment of US missile defence units on its territory in exchange for financial support, Ukrainian Ambassador in Belarus capital Minsk Mikhail Yezhel said Wednesday.
Putin said Yanukovych would have been killed if Russia did not give him refuge, and Moscow did so "on humanitarian motives". According to Putin, Russia received direct request from Yanukovych about military assistance.
