2 bombers target mobile phone firms in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities blame a radical Islamist sect for twin suicide car bombings targeting two major mobile phone companies, an official said Saturday, blacking out a top operator’s network in most of Nigeria‘s northern commercial hub.

A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden car into the facilities of the Nigerian subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd. of India at about 8 a.m. in the city of Kano, said Capt. Iweha Ikedichi, who speaks for a special taskforce deployed in Kano to reduce the threat of the Islamic rebels known as Boko Haram. The attack left an Airtel worker injured, authorities said. It also damaged a switch station, said James Eze, an Airtel spokesman. He said the company was still assessing how bad the damage was, but declined to comment further.

Switch stations control the regional mobile phone network and if they are seriously damaged, the entire network could go down. An Airtel staff who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press said the targeted switch station covered six northern states, including Kano. But while Airtel’s network appeared to be down across Kano Sunday, calls to lines in some of the other states went through.

At about the same time as the Airtel attack, another bomber targeted the facilities of the Nigerian subsidiary of South Africa-based MTN Group Ltd., about two miles (three kilometers) away. That attack was botched by security officers who shot the bomber, causing an explosion at the company’s gate, Ikedichi said.

The target of the foiled attack was MTN’s switch station, said Funmilayo Omogbenigun, spokeswoman for Nigeria’s largest cell phone network provider.

Authorities suspect the Boko Haram sect is behind the attacks. The group is held responsible for more than 770 deaths this year alone, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. Boko Haram’s campaign of bombings and shootings has targeted mosques, churches, schools, universities and government buildings. But, four months ago, the group broadened its scope by attacking mobile phone towers for the first time.

In September, a series of attacks damaged more than 31 towers operated by all the major mobile phone providers in the country. Other attacks have occurred since then, further straining the one link Nigeria relies on for communication in a country with very few landlines. While no one claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Islamist sect had threatened mobile phone companies earlier in the year, warning that they would be targeted for cooperating with the government to flush out its members.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with more than 160 million people, mobile phones serve as a valuable lifeline in both cities and rural communities. Landlines remain almost nonexistent, as the state-run telephone company has collapsed and repeated efforts to privatize it have failed. More 87 million mobile phone lines were in use in 2009, according to estimates.

“Never would we have expected that telecommunications could be targeted,” said Damien Udeh, a spokesman for the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria. “It portends a dangerous situation for everybody, especially government.”

___

Associated Press writer Yinka Ibukun contributed to this report from Lagos, Nigeria

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2 bombers target mobile phone firms in Nigeria

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities blame a radical Islamist sect for twin suicide car bombings targeting two major mobile phone companies, an official said Saturday, blacking out a top operator’s network in most of Nigeria‘s northern commercial hub.

A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden car into the facilities of the Nigerian subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd. of India at about 8 a.m. in the city of Kano, said Capt. Iweha Ikedichi, who speaks for a special taskforce deployed in Kano to reduce the threat of the Islamic rebels known as Boko Haram. The attack left an Airtel worker injured, authorities said. It also damaged a switch station, said James Eze, an Airtel spokesman. He said the company was still assessing how bad the damage was, but declined to comment further.

Switch stations control the regional mobile phone network and if they are seriously damaged, the entire network could go down. An Airtel staff who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press said the targeted switch station covered six northern states, including Kano. But while Airtel’s network appeared to be down across Kano Sunday, calls to lines in some of the other states went through.

At about the same time as the Airtel attack, another bomber targeted the facilities of the Nigerian subsidiary of South Africa-based MTN Group Ltd., about two miles (three kilometers) away. That attack was botched by security officers who shot the bomber, causing an explosion at the company’s gate, Ikedichi said.

The target of the foiled attack was MTN’s switch station, said Funmilayo Omogbenigun, spokeswoman for Nigeria’s largest cell phone network provider.

Authorities suspect the Boko Haram sect is behind the attacks. The group is held responsible for more than 770 deaths this year alone, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. Boko Haram’s campaign of bombings and shootings has targeted mosques, churches, schools, universities and government buildings. But, four months ago, the group broadened its scope by attacking mobile phone towers for the first time.

In September, a series of attacks damaged more than 31 towers operated by all the major mobile phone providers in the country. Other attacks have occurred since then, further straining the one link Nigeria relies on for communication in a country with very few landlines. While no one claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Islamist sect had threatened mobile phone companies earlier in the year, warning that they would be targeted for cooperating with the government to flush out its members.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with more than 160 million people, mobile phones serve as a valuable lifeline in both cities and rural communities. Landlines remain almost nonexistent, as the state-run telephone company has collapsed and repeated efforts to privatize it have failed. More 87 million mobile phone lines were in use in 2009, according to estimates.

“Never would we have expected that telecommunications could be targeted,” said Damien Udeh, a spokesman for the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria. “It portends a dangerous situation for everybody, especially government.”

___

Associated Press writer Yinka Ibukun contributed to this report from Lagos, Nigeria

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Iron Butterfly bassist Lee Dorman dies at age 70

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lee Dorman, the bassist for psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly, has died at age 70.

Orange County sheriff‘s spokeswoman Gail Krause says Dorman was found dead in a vehicle Friday morning. A coroner’s investigation is under way, but foul play is not suspected.

Krause said Dorman may have been on his way to a doctor’s appointment when he died.

Iron Butterfly was formed and rose to prominence in the late 1960s. Its second album, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” sold more than 30 million copies, according to the band’s website. The title track’s distinctive notes have been featured in numerous films and TV shows including “The Simpsons,” ”That ’70s Show” and in the series finale of “Rescue Me.”

Douglas Lee Dorman was born in September 1942 and had been living in Laguna Niguel, a coastal city in Southern California, when he died.

A message sent through the band’s website was not immediately returned.

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Violence, fear & suspicion imperil Pakistan’s war on polio

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani health worker Bushra Bibi spent eight years trekking to remote villages, carefully dripping polio vaccine into toddlers’ pursed mouths to protect them from the crippling disease.

Now the 35-year-old mother is too scared to go to work after masked men on motorbikes gunned down nine of her fellow health workers in a string of attacks this week.

“I have seen so much pain in the eyes of mothers whose children have been infected. So I have never seen this as just a job. It is my passion,” she said. “But I also have a family to look after … Things have never been this bad.”

After the deaths, the United Nations put its workers on lockdown. Immunizations by the Pakistani government continued in parts of the country. But the violence raised fresh questions over stability in the South Asian nation.

Pakistan’s Taliban insurgency, convinced that the anti-polio drive is just another Western plot against Muslims, has long threatened action against anyone taking part in it.

The militant group’s hostility deepened after it emerged that the CIA – with the help of a Pakistani doctor – had used a vaccination campaign to spy on Osama bin Laden’s compound before he was killed by U.S. special forces in a Pakistan town last year.

Critics say the attacks on the health workers are a prime example of the government’s failure to formulate a decisive policy on tackling militancy, despite pressure from key ally the United States, the source of billions of dollars in aid.

For years, authorities were aware that Taliban commanders had broadcast claims that the vaccination drive was actually a plot to sterilize Muslims.

That may seem absurd to the West, but in Pakistan such assertions are plausible to some. Years of secrecy during military dictatorships, frequent political upheaval during civilian rule and a poor public education system mean conspiracy theories run wild.

“Ever since they began to give these polio drops, children are reaching maturity a lot earlier, especially girls. Now 12 to 13-year-old girls are becoming women. This causes indecency in society,” said 45-year-old Mir Alam Khan, a carpet seller in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan.

The father of four didn’t allow any of his children to receive vaccinations.

“Why doesn’t the United States give free cures for other illnesses? Why only polio? There has to be an agenda,” he said.

While health workers risk attacks by militants, growing suspicions from ordinary Pakistanis are lowering their morale. Fatima, a health worker in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said that reaction to news of the CIA polio campaign was so severe that many of her colleagues quit.

“People’s attitudes have changed. You will not believe how even the most educated and well-to-do people will turn us away, calling us U.S. spies and un-Islamic,” said the 25-year-old who did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.

“Boys call us names, they say we are ‘indecent women’.”

Pakistan’s government has tried to shatter the myths that can undermine even the best-intentioned health projects by turning to moderate clerics and urging them to issue religious rulings supporting the anti-polio efforts.

Tahir Ashrafi, head of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, said the alliance of clerics had done its part, and it was up to the government to come to the rescue of aid workers.

“Clerics can only give fatwas and will continue to come together and condemn such acts,” he said. “What good are fatwas if the government doesn’t provide security?”

RISK OF POLIO RETURNING

That may be a tall order in Pakistan, where critics allege government officials are too busy lining their pockets or locked in power struggles to protect its citizens, even children vulnerable to diseases that can cripple or disfigure them.

Pakistani leaders deny such accusations.

Politicians also have a questionable track record when it comes to dealing with all the other troubles afflicting nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The villages where health workers once spent time tending to children often lack basic services, clinics, clean water and jobs. Industries that could strengthen the fragile economy are hobbled by chronic power cuts.

Deepening frustrations with those issues often encourage Pakistanis to give up on the state and join the Taliban.

So far it’s unclear who is behind the shootings. The main Taliban spokesman said they were opposed to the vaccination scheme but the group distanced itself from the attacks.

But another Taliban spokesman in South Waziristan said their fighters were behind an attack on a polio team in the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat on Monday. “The vaccinations were part of “a secret Jewish-American agenda to poison Pakistanis”, he said.

What is clear is the stakes are high.

Any gaps in the program endanger hard-won gains against a disease that can cause death or paralysis within hours.

A global effort costing billions of dollars eradicated polio from every country except Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Vaccinations cut Pakistan‘s polio cases from 20,000 in 1994 to 56 in 2012 and the disease seemed isolated in a pocket in the north. But polio is spread person-to-person, so any outbreak risks re-infecting communities cleared of the disease.

Last year, a strain from Pakistan spread northeast and caused the first outbreak in neighboring China since 1999.

Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said the group had been coming closer to eradicating the disease.

“For the first time, the virus had been geographically cornered,” he said. “We don’t want to lose the gains that had been made … Any suspension of activities gives the virus a new foothold and the potential to come roaring back and paralyze more children.”

MOURNING FAMILIES

Condemnation of the killings has been nearly universal. Clerics called for demonstrations to support health workers, the government has promised compensation for the deaths and police have vowed to provide more protection.

For women like Fehmida Shah, it’s already too late. The 44-year-old health worker lived with her family in a two-room house before gunmen shot her on Tuesday.

Her husband, Syed Riaz Shah, said she spent her tiny salary – the equivalent of just $ 2 a day – on presents for their four daughters. Even though the family was struggling, she always found some spare money for any neighbor in need.

“She was very kind and big hearted. All the women in our lane knew her,” he said.

“The entire neighborhood is in shock. Pray for my daughters. I will get through this. But I don’t know how they will.”

(Additional reporting by Imtiaz Shah in Karachi, Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Katharine Houreld in Islamabad; Editing by Michael Georgy and Sanjeev Miglani)

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U.S. judge approves settlement in BP class action suit

(Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday gave final approval to BP Plc‘s settlement with individuals and businesses who lost money and property in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The order only addressed the settlement of economic and property damage claims, not a separate medical benefits settlement for cleanup workers and others who say the spill made them sick.

BP has estimated that it will pay $ 7.8 billion to settle more than 100,000 claims in the class action litigation.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier initially approved the deal in May, but held a “fairness hearing” in November to weigh objections from about 13,000 claimants challenging the settlement to resolve some of BP’s liability for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

London-based BP’s Macondo well spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of 87 days. The torrent fouled shorelines from Texas to Alabama and eclipsed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in severity.

Lawyers for some affected parties had objected to the deal, reached in March between BP and lawyers representing plaintiffs ranging from restaurateurs, hoteliers, and oyster men who lost money from the spill. They argued that some claimants would be underpaid or unfairly excluded.

But in a 125-page order approving the settlement, Barbier called the deal “fair, reasonable and adequate,” citing the low number of class members who objected or opted out.

BP welcomed the approval order in a statement, adding that the settlement resolves the majority of economic and property damage claims stemming from the accident.

“Today’s decision by the Court is another important step forward for BP in meeting its commitment to economic and environmental restoration efforts in the Gulf and in eliminating legal risk facing the company,” BP said.

Separate from the class action claims, BP has been locked in a year-long legal battle with the U.S. government and Gulf Coast states to settle billions of dollars in civil and criminal liability from the explosion.

In a settlement with the U.S. government announced last month, BP agreed to pay $ 4.5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to felony misconduct. The government also indicted the two highest-ranking BP supervisors aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig during the disaster, charging them with 23 criminal counts including manslaughter.

The class action case is In Re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, No. 10-2179.

(Reporting by Terry Baynes in New York; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Italy PM Monti resigns, elections likely in February

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti tendered his resignation to the president on Friday after 13 months in office, opening the way to a highly uncertain national election in February.

The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, has kept his own political plans a closely guarded secret but he has faced growing pressure to seek a second term.

President Giorgio Napolitano is expected to dissolve parliament in the next few days and has already indicated that the most likely date for the election is February 24.

In an unexpected move, Napolitano said he would hold consultations with political leaders from all the main parties on Saturday to discuss the next steps. In the meantime Monti will continue in a caretaker capacity.

European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have called for Monti’s economic reform agenda to continue but Italy’s two main parties have said he should stay out of the race.

Monti, who handed in his resignation during a brief meeting at the presidential palace shortly after parliament approved his government’s 2013 budget, will hold a news conference on Sunday at which he is expected clarify his intentions.

Ordinary Italians are weary of repeated tax hikes and spending cuts and opinion polls offer little evidence that they are ready to give Monti a second term. A survey this week showed 61 percent saying he should not stand.

Whether he runs or not, his legacy will loom over an election which will be fought out over the painful measures he has introduced to try to rein in Italy’s huge public debt and revive its stagnant economy.

His resignation came a couple of months before the end of his term, after his technocrat government lost the support of Silvio Berlusconi‘s centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party in parliament earlier this month.

Speculation is swirling over Monti’s next moves. These could include outlining policy recommendations, endorsing a centrist alliance committed to his reform agenda or even standing as a candidate in the election himself.

The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) has held a strong lead in the polls for months but a centrist alliance led by Monti could gain enough support in the Senate to force the PD to seek a coalition deal which could help shape the economic agenda.

BERLUSCONI IN WINGS

Senior figures from the alliance, including both the UDC party, which is close to the Roman Catholic Church, and a new group founded by Ferrari sports car chairman Luca di Montezemolo, have been hoping to gain Monti’s backing.

He has not said clearly whether he intends to run, but he has dropped heavy hints he will continue to push a reform agenda that has the backing of both Italy’s business community and its European partners.

The PD has promised to stick to the deficit reduction targets Monti has agreed with the European Union and says it will maintain the broad course he has set while putting more emphasis on reviving growth.

Berlusconi’s return to the political arena has added to the already considerable uncertainty about the centre-right’s intentions and increased the likelihood of a messy and potentially bitter election campaign.

The billionaire media tycoon has fluctuated between attacking the government’s “Germano-centric” austerity policies and promising to stand aside if Monti agrees to lead the centre right, but now appears to have settled on an anti-Monti line.

He has pledged to cut taxes and scrap a hated housing tax which Monti imposed. He has also sounded a stridently anti-German line which has at times echoed the tone of the populist 5-Star Movement headed by maverick comic Beppe Grillo.

The PD and the PDL, both of which supported Monti’s technocrat government in parliament, have made it clear they would not be happy if he ran against them and there have been foretastes of the kind of attacks he can expect.

Former centre-left prime minister Massimo D’Alema said in an interview last week that it would be “morally questionable” for Monti to run against the PD, which backed all of his reforms and which has pledged to maintain his pledges to European partners.

Berlusconi who has mounted an intensive media campaign in the past few days, echoed that criticism this week, saying Monti risked losing the credibility he has won over the past year and becoming a “little political figure”.

(Additional reporting by Gavin Jones, Massimiliano Di Giorgio and Paolo Biondi; Writing by Gavin Jones and James Mackenzie; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Instagram diverts attention from botched policy change with another new filter

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“It’s a Wonderful Life” is top Christmas film with critics

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When it comes to Christmas films, “It’s a Wonderful Life” can still melt critics’ hearts nearly 70 years after it was released, according to a survey of the best-reviewed Christmas films.

The survey, to be released on Friday by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, found that the 1946 redemption story starring Jimmy Stewart edged out the 1942 Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire musical “Holiday Inn” and Tim Burton‘s 1993 stop-motion fantasy “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

World War Two drama “Stalag 17,” released in 1953, and 1947′s “Miracle on 34th Street” round out the top five.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” vaulted to the top spot from No. 5 in 2009, when the list was last compiled, bumping “The Nightmare Before Christmas” from its best-reviewed status.

Films that use the holiday as a backdrop for the plot such as 1988′s “Die Hard,” which was No. 6 on the list, and 1983′s “Trading Places” at No. 9, were also eligible, the website said.

Rotten Tomatoes, which analyzes film reviews and assigns a score based on total critical reception, applied that same formula to Christmas films for the list, Matt Atchity, the website’s editor in chief, told Reuters.

“You look at the list and it’s all the classics … the cream floats to the top,” Atchity said, adding that the rankings were weighted to reflect the amount of reviews a film received, which could artificially boost or decline a score.

Films from the 1960s and 1970s were notably absent from the list. Atchity said studios were more focused at that time on work by big-name directors than on seasonal films.

Here are the 25 best-reviewed Christmas films of all time, according to website Rotten Tomatoes:

* “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946)

* “Holiday Inn” (1942)

* “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993)

* “Stalag 17″ (1953)

* “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947)

* “Die Hard” (1988)

* “Arthur Christmas” (2011)

* “A Christmas Story” (1983)

* “Trading Places” (1983)

* “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” (2010)

* “Lethal Weapon” (1987)

* “A Midnight Clear” (1992)

* “A Christmas Tale” (2008)

* “While You Were Sleeping” (1995)

* “Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)” (1951)

* “Elf” (2003)

* “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” (2005)

* “Gremlins” (1984)

* “The Santa Clause” (1994)

* “The Bishop’s Wife” (1947)

* “Bad Santa” (2003)

* “8 Women” (2002)

* “Batman Returns” (1992)

* “White Christmas” (1954)

* “The Ref” (1994)

The full list can been seen at http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/best_christmas_movies_2012/?hub=10

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Stacey Joyce)

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Mo. students lose 756 pounds at SC boarding school

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sixteen-year-old Jason Alexander weighed 326 pounds four months ago when he and 13 classmates boarded a plane for a weight-loss boarding school in South Carolina.

When he stepped off a return flight home Friday, he was down to 233 pounds, making him the biggest loser in his Missouri school district’s unusually aggressive effort to battle childhood obesity.

While individual families have long enrolled children in weight-loss programs, the Independence school district is believed to be the first to send students as a group to a program like the one in South Carolina. The 12 students who completed the program lost a combined 756 pounds, and relatives and friends who greeted them at the airport could scarcely believe the change.

Jason’s mother, Debbie Alexander, said it wasn’t just the weight loss. Her son who had battled a speech impediment and been slow to smile was now grinning broadly.

“It’s crazy,” Alexander said. “Kids have always given him grief.”

The school district, donors and the students’ families worked together to pay about half of the usual $ 28,500-per-semester tuition at MindStream Academy in Bluffton, S.C. The rest of the tuition was paid by a foundation associated with the academy and other donors.

Jason and the other students — the youngest was 11 — spent the semester exercising, studying, working with counselors and learning to eat healthier. The curriculum was practical and hands-on: Students took field trips to a grocery store and fast food restaurant to learn to make good purchasing decisions and studied things like knife skills in the school’s kitchen.

Their parents, meanwhile, met monthly with MindStream‘s clinical director in Independence to learn how to help their children upon their return. Experts say it’s hard for anyone to maintain weight-loss if their families don’t also develop good eating and exercise habits.

Each student had a story of how the pounds added up. Jason’s weight shot up after his father’s death 6 1/2 years earlier, jeopardizing his dream of joining the military. Like many who are overweight, he became easily winded and his knees hurt.

He said he’s now 40 to 50 pounds from being able to qualify for military service and plans to join a training group to help him shed the rest of the weight. His family has cleansed the kitchen of junk food, made space for a treadmill and stocked up on healthy items like ground turkey. The district envisions Jason and the other participants becoming health ambassadors in their schools, perhaps speaking to groups or working one-on-one with classmates who are struggling with their weight.

“I feel amazing,” said Jason, who shed weight so quickly that he struggled to find clothes. His jeans, which he bought from another classmate, hung loose around him, cinched with a belt to keep them from falling off. “I can’t believe I got to that point. I can’t believe I got that big.”

Several Independence parents said the program also helped them lose weight, from 5 to 80 pounds.

Angela Gentry lost 20 pounds while her 17-year-old daughter, Teah, was in South Carolina. Teah lost more than 60 pounds, and her brother lost 36 at home.

“These kids are ready,” Gentry said. “They could take on anything.”

The district and the boarding school didn’t know of any other public schools that had made such an effort, and other experts couldn’t name any either. But Sarah Stone, MindStream’s programming director, said it hopes to engage other districts in similar partnerships in the future.

“It is to all of our best interest for these kids to be able to realize their best potential,” Stone said.

Independence already had taken aggressive steps to battle childhood obesity, measuring students’ body-mass index and posting the information on a protected website parents use to check grades and lunch account balances. The data was alarming: 36 percent of the students were overweight last year.

The district took steps to address the problem, including offering groups for students focused on healthy eating. But district spokeswoman Nancy Lewis said some students need a more intensive intervention.

“I do think there is something about them being removed from their environment that makes this a success,” said Lewis, adding that the school system hopes to send a second group of students to MindStream next fall. “It just kick starts the process.”

Chrystal Loyd, 15, said she felt “more energized” after losing more than 60 pounds and planned to focus now on her mother. Misty Loyd, 35, already had shed 15 pounds and run a 3-kilometer race, a first for her.

“We are going to start working out together,” Misty Loyd said. “We are going to use their cookbook and start cooking healthier.”

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