Dozens killed in Nigeria bus station bombing

Suspicion falls on Boko Haram after rush-hour blast - the first attack on the federal capital Abuja in two years.

A morning rush hour bomb has killed at least 71 people at a bus station on the outskirts of Abuja, the deadliest attack ever on Nigeria's federal capital. Suspicion fell on Boko Haram, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday's blast from the armed group battling Western influence, who are mainly active in the northeast. As well as the 71 dead, police said 124 people were wounded in the first attack on Abuja in two years, Reuters news agency said. Security experts suspect the explosion occurred inside a vehicle, Air Commodore Charles Otegbade, director of search and rescue operations, said. The bus station, 8km southwest of central Abuja, serves Nyanya, a poor, ethnically and religiously mixed satellite town. Nyanya is filled with government and civil society workers who cannot afford Abuja's exorbitant rents. Visiting the site later in the day, President Goodluck Jonathan pledged that Nigeria would overcome the insurgency. "The issue of Boko Haram is quite an ugly history within this period of our own development," he said. "But we will get over it ... The issue of Boko Haram is temporary." Charred bodies Monday's bombing in Abuja  left a hole roughly 4ft deep and spread debris across the compound, an AFP reporter and witnesses said. Bloody remains lay strewn over the ground as security forces struggled to hold back a crowd of onlookers and fire crews hosed down a bus still holding the charred bodies of commuters. The attack underscored the vulnerability of Abuja, built in the 1980s in the geographic centre of Nigeria to replace coastal Lagos as the seat of government for what is now Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer. Boko Haram, which says it is fighting for an Islamic state, has largely been confined to Nigeria's remote northeast. The group has been particularly active in the area over the past few months and is increasingly targeting civilians it accuses of collaborating with the government or security forces. Boko Haram has carried out several previous attacks in and around Abuja, including a 2011 car bombing at the UN headquarters in the city that killed at least 26 people. Bus parks have been among Boko Haram's most favoured targets, including multiple, coordinated bombings at a terminal in the northern city of Kano last year that killed more than 40 people. Boko Haram violence has cost more than 1,500 lives already this year, but most of the unrest has affected villages in the remote northeast. Last May the military launched a massive offensive to crush the uprising and has described Boko Haram as being in disarray and on the defensive. A major attack in Abuja, just a few kilometres from the seat of government, will perhaps cast further doubt on the success of that campaign. Jonathan, who is expected to face a tough re-election battle next year, has faced intense criticism over the continuing Boko Haram violence. Political implications With much of the recent violence contained in the northeast, Jonathan had been able to claim that progress was being made in the battle against the fighters. An escalation of violence in or near Abuja would pile further pressure on Jonathan. Jonathan said the latest presumed Boko Haram attack and others like it were "unnecessary distractions that are pushing us backwards". "The government is doing everything to make sure that we move our country forward," he said. Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, who has been declared a global terrorist by the US, pledged in a recent video message to widen the group's violence outside its northeastern stronghold. Nigeria is Africa top oil producer and largest economy, but more than 80 percent of the its 170 million people live on less than $2 per day. Analysts say that the Boko Haram unrest has partly stalled economic growth and scared away potential investors.

Source: Agencies

Many Dead As Bomb Blast Rocks Abuja

An explosion occurred at the busy Nyanya Mass Transit Park at  6.55a.m. on Monday morning and killed scores of people heading to work and their businesses.
The Nyanya park is a transit point for residents of Mararaba, Nasarawa State and satellite communities of the Federal Capital Territory.

PHOTOS: Meet John Mikel Obi's Beautiful Russian Blonde Girlfriend

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He is seriously dating and living with a beautiful Russian lady, Olga Diyachenko, in his UK house.

Below see some of the cute selfies, cuddling pictures, tongues-out series and kissing photos Mikel Obi and Olga:

WALKING DEAD: "Corpse" Wakes Up, Shocks Morgue Staff

Kenyan authorities have launched an investigation into how a man declared dead in a hospital woke up alive in its morgue the next day.

Paul Mutora was visited by relatives after being rescued from the morgue

Shocked mortuary workers at Naivasha hospital ran away when the body stirred and was seen to be breathing.

Paul Mutora, who had tried to kill himself by swallowing insecticide, was pronounced dead on Wednesday night.

The chief medic said the drug used to treat him slowed the heart beat, which may have led to the mistake.

"This might have confused medical personnel, but the victim was saved before he could be embalmed," Dr Joseph Mburu, the superintendent in charge of Naivasha District Hospital, was quoted by Kenya's Standard newspaper as saying.

According to the paper, Mr Mutora's father and other relatives visited the morgue on Thursday morning to view the body and then returned home to start funeral arrangements.

"But in the afternoon we were informed, he was alive and were left in shock," the father said.

A witness said that when noises were heard inside the cold room: "The mortuary attendant and a worker took to their heels screaming."

Journalists photographed Mr Mutora later recovering on a male ward in the hospital in the lakeside town, 90km north-west of the capital, Nairobi.

"This was a mistake from the start and I apologise to my father," the patient said.

BABY FACTORY FULL STORY: Owner Is Real Billionaire, Lives In Luxury + PHOTOS

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The signboard of the ‘hospital’

The glassy signpost with blue, white and black lettering promises would-be visitors succour. Its delicate frame announces to the public the presence of a private hospital. Near this board is another with less aesthetic appeal on a lonely street off Egbu Road, in Owerri metropolis, which announces to the vulnerable, a place of refuge.

The World's Biggest Family: Man With 39 Wives, 94 Children And 33 Grandchildren + PHOTOS

Ziona Chana is the head of the world's biggest family - and says he is 'blessed' to have his 39 wives.

The wives and me: Mr Ziona Chana poses with his 39 wives at their home in Baktawng

Ziona Chana also has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.

They live in a 100-room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram, where the wives sleep in giant communal dormitories.

Mr Chana said: "Today I feel like God's special child. He's given me so many people to look after.

I consider myself a lucky man to be the husband of 39 women and head of the world's largest family."

The family is organised with almost military discipline, with the oldest wife Zathiangi organising her fellow partners to perform household chores such as cleaning, washing and preparing meals.

You treat this place like a hotel: With 100 rooms, the Ziona mansion is the biggest concrete structure in the hilly village of Baktawng in Mizoram, India

One evening meal can see them pluck 30 chickens, peel 132lb of potatoes and boil up to 220lb of rice.

Coincidentally, Mr Chana is also head of a sect that allows members to take as many wives as he wants.

He even married ten women in one year, when he was at his most prolific, and enjoys his own double bed while his wives have to make do with communal dormitories.

He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom with the older members of the family sleeping further away - and there is a rotation system for who visits Mr Chana's bedroom.

Feeling peckish? The senior ladies of the Chana family show what it takes just to make a meal

Rinkmini, one of Mr Chana's wives who is 35 years old, said: "We stay around him as he is the most important person in the house."

He is the most handsome person in the village. She says Mr Chana noticed her on a morning walk in the village 18 years ago and wrote her a letter asking for her hand in marriage.

Another of his wives, Huntharnghanki, said the entire family gets along well.

The family system is reportedly based on mutual love and respect.

Shared bedroom: A look inside the four-storey mansion

And Mr Chana, whose religious sect has 4,00 members, says he has not stopped looking for new wives.

"To expand my sect, I am willing to go even to the U.S. to marry," he said.

One of his sons insisted that Mr Chana, whose grandfather also had many wives, marries the poor women from the village so he can look after them.

Monstrous radioactive squid on California beach? Some actually believe these stories

Fabricated report just one of many that need to be debunked as concern about Fukushima radiation is turning into borderline hysteria

Photoshopped image showing what is said to be 160-foot “radioactive squid” is via Lightly Braised Turnip

Some people logged onto their computers Thursday morning and discovered an amazing story circulating on social media. Showcased was an image of a monstrous giant squid that had washed ashore on a Southern California beach (top photo).
The story, published by the Lightly Braised Turnip website, blamed leaking radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan for growing oversized sea creatures. Remarkably, some people believed the story, which quoted experts who don’t really exist.
As of early Thursday afternoon the story, from a website that produces more than its share of parody, had been Facebook “liked” more than 97,000 times.
Reads one of many comments: “The ‘gift’ that keeps on giving: Fukushima.”