Nigerian president's state votes amid tight security

By Austin Ekeinde and Tife Owalabi

YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerians voted amid tight security in a governorship election on Saturday in President Goodluck Jonathan's restive and oil-rich home state of Bayelsa, where last week militants attacked a major oil pipeline.

Nigeria's 36 state governors are some of the most powerful politicians in Africa's most populous nation, in some cases controlling budgets larger than other African countries and gubernatorial elections can stoke violence.

At least one person was killed and several injured at a pre-election rally on Tuesday in the southern Ijaw region in Bayelsa, witnesses said.

"Ten thousand to 15,000 policemen are deployed for the election, these include anti-bomb squads from Delta, Edo and Rivers states to ensure that all key points are saved," said Chris Olakpe, Bayelsa's police commissioner.

"We are going to effectively police all polling booths and normal patrols would go on to ensure miscreants do not hijack the process," added Olakpe, who took up his position this week.

Even with a huge police and military presence it will be difficult to guard all ballot boxes in Bayelsa, where thousands of kilometers (miles) of labyrinthine creeks weave through swamplands, sitting on top of billions of dollars of crude oil.

"Soldiers, police are all over so I'm hopeful there will be no problem of shooting, killing, burning of houses and all that," said John Masi, a 35-year old laborer.

"I want the new governor that will be elected today to quickly construct the new university so I can get work to do and make money to get out of this wooden shack and have a better life for my wife and two children."

Bayelsa is one of the three Nigerian states that make up the oil rich Niger Delta, where militant gangs held the government to ransom for years by sabotaging pipelines and stealing industrial amounts of oil until an amnesty in 2009.

Attacks have been rarer and less destructive since the amnesty but they still occur. Last week the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), formerly Nigeria's main militant threat, claimed a strike on a pipeline owned by Italian firm Eni, which confirmed 4,000 barrels per day of output had been cut by the attack.

MILITANTS

Under the amnesty thousands of militants gave up their weapons, joined training schemes and drew stipends. Security sources say remaining gangs in the Niger Delta do not have the capacity to do the damage seen in the past, which at its height cut more than a third of the OPEC-member's output.

Several false threats purporting to be from MEND have been sent in the past and recent damage caused to Nigeria's oil infrastructure has been done by gangs stealing oil for illicit refining and sale, rather than the result of militant strikes.

Diplomats and security sources have said violence in the Niger Delta is often stoked by rival politicians and the race for the Bayelsa governorship post has been fierce.

Nigeria's Supreme Court removed Governor Timipre Sylva from his post last month because it said his tenure should have expired, replacing him with Bayelsa's speaker of the house of assembly.

The dominant ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) didn't allow Sylva to run in its primary last November, the first time the PDP has stopped a sitting governor from seeking a second term. Thousands of soldiers were then deployed to Bayelsa, prompting outrage from Sylva's team.

The winner of that primary, Henry Dickson, is the clear favorite to win Saturday's vote. President Jonathan is backing Dickson and is traveling from the capital Abuja to his home state to cast his vote, the presidency said.

Western diplomats said Sylva was snubbed because he fell out with his former ally Jonathan. Sylva will not run in the election but is seeking to nullify the most recent PDP primary, hoping to revert back to the primary he won last year.

Bayelsa has a population of around 1.5 million, the least populous state in a country of more than 160 million but it is key to Nigeria's economy due to its substantial oil wealth.

(Additional reporting and writing by Joe Brock, editing by Rosalind Russell)

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Sudan and southern rebels clash in oil border state

AppId is over the quota

KHARTUM | Samstag, 14. Januar 2012 3:37 pm EST

KHARTUM (Reuters) - Sudanesische Armee kämpften Rebellen in den Öl produzierenden Zustand des South Kordofan letzte Woche, beide Seiten sagte am Samstag.

Die Rebellen sagte sie neun Regierungstruppen getötet hatte, aber die Armee verweigert dies.

Kampf gegen stattgefunden hat seit letztem Juni in South Kordofan zwischen die sudanesische Armee und Rebellen aus dem nördlichen Flügel der die Sudan People's Liberation Movement, die Regierung in Khartum zu stürzen wollen.

Zusammenstöße setzte sich zu benachbarten Blauen Nil Staat, der unabhängigen Südsudan, auch im September grenzt.

Die Gewalt hat bereits etwa 417.000 Menschen zu ihren Häusern fliehen, mehr als 80.000 von ihnen gezwungen im Südsudan, die Vereinten Nationen schätzen.

Blauer Nil und South Kordofan enthalten große Gruppen, die einseitig mit dem Süden in einem jahrzehntelangen Bürgerkrieg, und wer sagen, dass sie stehen weiterhin vor Verfolgung in Sudan da spalteten sich im Südsudan im Juli.

Der SPLM ist jetzt der Regierungspartei im unabhängigen Süden und bestreitet SPLM-Nord Rebellen über die Grenze zu unterstützen.

Die SPLM-Nord-Rebellen sagte sie neun Soldaten getötet hatten, zerstört drei Tanks und beschlagnahmten militärischen Ausrüstung bei Zusammenstößen auf Tees in der Nähe der südlichen Grenze am Montag. Sie auch drei Militärfahrzeuge in einen weiteren Angriff in der gleichen Gegend am Dienstag beschlagnahmt, sagte sie in einer Erklärung.

Armee-Sprecher Sawarmi Khalid Saad bestätigte Militäroperationen in der Stadt Tees zu öffnen eine Straße stattgefunden hatte, aber verweigert, dass alle Soldaten getötet worden waren.

"Diese Gebiete unter Kontrolle der Armee sind," sagte er.

Veranstaltungen in South Kordofan und Blauer Nil schwer sind zu überprüfen, weil Beihilfen Gruppen und ausländische Journalisten sind verboten aus dem Kampf stattfindet.

SPLM-Nord ist Teil einer Reihe von Rebellenbewegungen in unterentwickelten Grenzregionen, die sagen, dass sie kämpfen zu stürzen sudanesischen Präsidenten Omar Hassan al-Bashir und am Ende, was sie sehen, wie die Dominanz der politischen Elite Khartum.

Sudan und Südsudan, die immer noch eine Reihe von Fragen einschließlich der Öleinnahmen zu beheben, Handel regelmäßig Anschuldigungen Aufstände auf jedes andere Hoheitsgebiet zu unterstützen.

Ihrer Streitkräfte stießen bei Jau in einer Region von beiden Seiten letzten Monat in einer seltenes direkte Konfrontation beansprucht.

Einheimische haben Luftangriffe konfrontiert und sporadisch Boden kämpfen, je nach Berechtigungsgruppen und Flüchtlinge, obwohl Sudan es leugnet ist Bombardierung ziviler Bereiche.

(Berichterstattung von Khalid Aziz; Schriftlicher Form von Ulf Laessing. Bearbeiten von Ben Harding und Peter Graff)

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Nigeria heads of State and Government knocked churches after Islamists attack

1 of 8. In a view, the scene of a bomb explosion at the Theresa Catholic Church is St. at Madalla, Abuja, outside Nigeria's capital Abuja, December 25 2011. Islamist militant group Boko Haram said that it placed bombs that exploded on Christmas day in churches in Nigeria, one of which killed at least 27 people on the fringes of the capital.

IMG credit: Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde

By Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria there is no competent leaders and former military ruler, one said heads of Government to address the security issues, on Monday, after Christmas bomb attacks on churches by Islamist fighters, more than two dozen people killed.

Muhammadu Buhari, a northern lights, lost to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, said in a statement in the Nigerian daily the last presidential election in April, that the Government was only slowly responding and shown indifference to the bombings.

The Boko Haram Islamic sect which aims, Sharia law over Africa's most populous country to impose responsibility for three Church bombs claimed the second Christmas in a row it led massacre on Christian houses of worship.

Security forces blamed the sect for two explosions in the North and fear grows that Boko Haram trying to ignite a sectarian civil war in a country split evenly between Christians and Muslims exist side by side for the most part in peace.

"How on earth would the Vatican and speak the British authorities, before the Nigerian Government to attacks in Nigeria, which have led to the death of our citizens?" Buhari, said in the statement by punch newspaper published.

"This is clearly a mistake of the leadership at a time, which must to ensure Government the people the ability to ensure the safety of life and property," said Buhari.

He said the Government more than had to spend more on security to deal with the problem.

Jonathan, would a Christian from the South, is fighting the threat of Islamic militancy, as the attacks "unhappy", but said Boko Haram "be (roughly) forever." "It will be to stop one day."

Pope Benedict on Monday condemned the attacks as "absurd" gesture and prayed that "the hands of the violent end."

The Pope, speaking from his window overlooking St Peter's square in Rome, said, that violence brought only pain, destruction and death.

COORDINATED ATTACKS

The attacks, which clashes between security forces and Boko Haram came a few days after which killed at least 68 people, evidence of more coordination and strategy of the group, which could be sounding the alarm bell in Nigeria and Western capitals.

St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madala, a satellite town, about 40 km (25 miles) from the Centre of the capital Abuja, was packed, when the first explosion exploded Gates after Christmas mass.

A few hours later, mountain of fire and miracles were reported at the Church in the Central, ethnically and religiously mixed city of Jos and in a church in Gadaka in the Northern State of Yobe State blasts. Residents said many wounded at Gadaka, but there were no immediate further details.

A suicide bomber killed four officials of the State security service in one of the other attacks in northeastern Damaturu was announced by the police. Residents heard two loud explosions and shots in the city.

Reuters reporter at the Church near the city of Abuja saw that the front roof had been destroyed, as several houses nearby had. Five cars were burnt out still smoldering. There were scenes of chaos as shocked disbelief staring people in the rubble.

"" Mass just gone and people were noise from the Church, and suddenly I heard a loud noise: "Gbam!" Cars were on fire and bodies strewn everywhere ", said veneciay minke Reuters."

Father Christopher Bard, Assistant pastor of the Church, said: "the officials counted me said they have collected 27 make so far." Police closed off area around the Church. Thousands of angry youths, you set roadblocks burn on the motorway from Abuja results in predominantly Muslim Northern Nigeria.

Police and military trying to dispel it by burning life shot into the air with tear gas.

"We are so angry!" Kingsley Ukpabi cried vehicles, as a queue of the OWL behind his flaming barrage lined up.

VIOLENCE CREDIT SPREADS

Boko Haram - in the Hausa language in Northern Nigeria speaking means "Western education sin" – is modeled loosely on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

The low level insurgency to the limited largely to Nigeria, but there are several parts to the North, Centre and Abuja fell this year.

Last Christmas Eve, a series of bomb blasts to Jos killed 32 people and other people died in attacks on two churches in the North-East.

A wounded man whose Beine were almost crushed into pieces by the explosion of security services on a stretcher in close to an ambulance was loaded at the Church near the city of Abuja.

"I will survive," he said in a quiet voice.

The explosion in Jos, a powder keg of ethnic and religious tensions occurred deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians have a spree shooting of militant, accompanied the fire was exchanged with the local police, Charles Ezeocha, Jos task force spokesman said.

"We have lost a policeman and we have four arrests." I believe that we get further information and work on it can use, "he said." Police found four other explosive devices in Jos, which disabled them, he added.

The White House condemned "This senseless violence and tragic loss of life at Christmas."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attacks and expressed his condolences "the people of Nigeria and the members of the."

"The Secretary-General once again calls for an end to all acts of sectarian violence in the country and reaffirms its belief that this use of violence can justify not an end,", a statement said published by his Office.

(Additional reporting by Tim cocks in Lagos, Tife Owolabi and Buhari Bello in Jos, Mike Oboh in Kano, correspondent in Maiduguri and Philip Pullella in Vatican City;) Write by Tim cocks and BATE Borisov Felix; (Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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At Penn State candlelight vigil, a search for solace

AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota By Ernest Scheyder

STATE COLLEGE, Pa |

STATE COLLEGE, Pa (Reuters) - Ever since charges of child sex abuse against Jerry Sandusky tore a giant hole in Penn State's heart, students, alumni and staff have grappled with how they could heal.

It is not easy, after the horrific crimes Sandusky is alleged to have committed came to light a week ago.

Nearly 10,000 came to the university's Old Main hall on Friday night, braving the frigid mountain air to try and begin that healing process. Trying to smother the hate that has engulfed this sleepy Pennsylvania town.

Dustin Yenser, a 2007 Penn State graduate who now teaches middle school, spoke with raw emotion to the crowd of the pain he sees his university going through.

"We are Penn State, and we are hurt, and we are sorry," Yenser said, his voice cracking and tears dripping onto his face. "The only thing that matters now is that we are here for the victims."

Yenser and other speakers said the school must move forward, but never forget.

Prominent Penn State names such as former President Graham Spanier, Assistant Coach Mike McQueary, Athletic Director Tim Curley, finance official Gary Schultz and even legendary football coach Joe Paterno were not spoken. Some of these men had once been treated as near-deities, but all have been brought down by the scandal in the last week.

Determination, perseverance and charity were instead the champions of the night.

Students, some in shorts and sandals and others donning wool hats and parkas, stood solemnly in front of the old building clasping candles, sometimes repeating with thunderclap the school's iconic chant: "We Are Penn State."

They listened as one speaker told of her own experience being sexually abused as a child.

Another said Penn State must continue its history of supporting charities, including one that funds children's cancer research.

Another painfully noted that Sandusky had deprived his victims of their innocence.

As an a cappella group sang John Lennon's "Imagine," a sea of bright candlelight engulfed the crowd and many hummed along.

Lavar Arrington, who played football at Penn State and in the National Football League, spoke of how the Sandusky allegations are a challenge the university must rise above.

"The worst crime for all of us would be to leave here and forget what happened," Arrington said. "This is our call to duty."

The vigil, he told those assembled, is the start of a new story for Penn State.

"It's on us to renew the pride of Penn State," he said. "I'm not going to take that fight lying down."

TJ Bard, the president of the undergraduate student body, said the vigil represented hope, not only for the victims, but for the battered school.

"We cannot let the actions of a few define us," he said. "May we fight until no child is harmed again."

As Bard finished his speech, the Old Main clock tower began to chime for the 10 p.m. hour.

The crowd stood in silence.

Quietly, with respect, the university's marching bad played, "Alma Mater," the school song.

The 110-year-old lyrics eerily warn someone like Sandusky should never be tolerated, a fact that did not go unnoticed as the crowd audibly grew louder for the line: "May no act of ours bring shame."

It was, Alex Kolker said, a vigil to show the world Penn State supports the victims and is much more than just football.

"This is definitely a start in the healing process," said Kolker, a junior.

The vigil ended with an a capella performance of Coldplay's "Fix You," a somber song that speaks of hope despite loss, aptly describing the mood on this campus.

"Tears stream down your face," the a capella group sang, with the crowd joining along in unison. "I promise you I'll learn from my mistakes."

(Reporting and Writing by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Greg McCune)

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