Nigeria

Below are five things to take from Team USA's 156-73 win Thursday over Nigeria: 1. Team USA stormed off to a great start and didn't let up. It turns out France and Tunisia woke up a sleeping giant. And anyone wondering if Team USA could correct its early shooting problems no longer need to question it. Team USA posted a near-perfect performance that can be broken down in several areas. First the historical: Team USA's 156 points set the record for most points in an Olympic basketball game, which Brazil once had when it scored 138 points over Egypt in 1988.

KANO, Nigeria - Local government officials and a military spokesman in Nigeria agreed that security forces and Islamist militants had battled in recent days in the country's far northeast. But they offered widely varying accounts Monday of how many people, including civilians, had been killed. Some officials said about 185 people were slain in the clashes, with some residents blaming government troops in part for the deaths. Security officials put the number lower. The fighting began Friday in Baga, a fishing community near Lake Chad, but news of the violence reached Abuja, the capital, only late Sunday.

As if the U.S. needed to shoot well too. They're already the top men's basketball team in the Olympics, able to drive and dunk and put on a display better than anybody. So they drove a stake through Nigeria in a preliminary game, 156-73, making massive numbers of three-pointers Thursday and smashing the Olympic record for points in a game. Carmelo Anthony scored 37 points, the most ever for a U.S. player in the Olympics, and set another U.S. Olympic record by making 10 three-pointers (he needed only 12 attempts)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Dozens of people, including many civilians, died in gun battles between Nigerian security forces and Islamist militants in recent days, according to Nigerian officials. However, reports of the number of casualties varied, with some government officials saying about 185 people were slain while security officials put the death toll lower. The fighting began Friday in Baga, a fishing community near Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria, but news of the violence only reached Abuja, the capital, late Sunday.

Re "Love It or Hate It, Nigeria's Lagos Is Never Dull," Dec. 25: Among all the cities in Africa, Lagos is the most vibrant in which to live and work. With the corruption and looting of the treasury by state officials in Lagos and at the federal level in Nigeria, Lagos and its inhabitants still dominate economic and social activities in West Africa. For your writer to point out the ills without adequately pointing out the trendy and urban life in Lagos does injustice to a well-researched piece.

World Cup 2010: NIGERIA FIFA ranking: 22 Overall World Cup record: 4-6-1 Coach: Lars Lagerback Best performance: Second round, 1994, 1998 Overview: The Super Eagles have turned to Lagerback for help, recognizing that the Swedish coach has a proven, albeit modest, track record of tournament success. Lagerback's problem is that Africa's most populous country expects to win it all and its soccer federation is chronically interference-minded. The team does not have anyone remotely as inspiring as former star Jay-Jay Okocha, but Ayegbeni Yakubu, John Mikel Obi and Obafemi Martins will do. Nigeria could cause a stir if its fans travel in numbers to South Africa.

BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) - Police in northern Nigeria say gunmen have kidnapped seven foreign workers from a construction company. The attack happened in Bauchi state overnight Saturday. Police spokesman Hassan Muhammed told The Associated Press that the attack first targeted a prison in the area. Muhammed said Sunday the attackers then went to the construction company Septraco, where they killed a guard and kidnapped the foreign workers. Local government chairman Adamu Aliyu told the AP that those kidnapped were from Britain, Italy, Greece and Lebanon.

I entirely agree with the analysis of Nigeria's importance to the United States in the article by Adonis Hoffman, "Nigeria Heads Towards Civil War, and the World Looks Elsewhere" (Opinion, Aug. 7), but accusing Gen. Sani Abacha of retreating from democracy is unfair. The political situation in Nigeria is vastly more complex than what the article portrays. The legal authority, which organized the June 12, 1993, election, annulled it before announcing the results and then stepped down.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Dozens of people, including many civilians, died in gun battles between Nigerian security forces and Islamist militants in recent days, according to Nigerian officials. However, reports of the number of casualties varied, with some government officials saying about 185 people were slain while security officials put the death toll lower. The fighting began Friday in Baga, a fishing community near Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria, but news of the violence only reached Abuja, the capital, late Sunday.

Two radio journalists have reportedly been charged in northern Nigeria on suspicion of airing a broadcast that incited the slayings of women vaccinating people against polio. The case centers on a program aired days before the shootings last week. Police said at least nine immunization workers were killed by gunmen Friday in the northern city of Kano, where suspicion toward vaccines has thwarted the campaign against polio. It is still unclear who was behind the attacks; no arrests have been reported.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A family of French tourists, including four children, held hostage by an Islamist militia in northern Nigeria has been freed, according the French and Cameroonian officials. Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, his wife Albane, brother Cyril and four sons ages 5 to 12 were kidnapped in February after visiting a wildlife park in northern Cameroon and were whisked by motorcycles across the border into Nigeria. The Islamist militia Boko Haram later claimed responsibility and demanded the release of prisoners in Nigeria and Cameroon.

WASHINGTON - U.S. courts will not be the world forum for lawsuits brought by victims of human rights abuses abroad who seek damages from multinational corporations or deposed tyrants, the Supreme Court declared Wednesday. In a decision welcomed by corporate leaders and decried by human rights activists, the justices said U.S. courts are limited mostly to deciding disputes over conduct that took place on American territory, not on foreign soil. By a 9-0 vote, the high court tossed out a closely watched lawsuit brought by Nigerians against Royal Dutch Petroleum for allegedly conspiring with the Nigerian regime in a campaign of rape, torture and murder in the oil-rich delta in the early 1990s.

WASHINGTON - A Nigerien man allegedly involved with Al Qaeda at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., marking the second time this month the Obama administration has announced criminal charges against suspected terrorists. Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun was charged in U.S. District Court with conspiring to murder U.S. nationals abroad, plotting to bomb U.S. government facilities in Africa and other offenses. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- An extremist splinter group Monday claimed responsibility for the weekend kidnapping of seven foreigners in northern Nigeria. The group, Ansaru, broke away from the Islamist insurgent organization Boko Haram, which has been mounting regular attacks in the north in recent years. Gunmen attacked a prison on Saturday in Jamaare, Bauchi state, then blasted their way into a housing compound for foreign workers employed by a Lebanese construction company, Setraco, and seized the seven foreigners.

BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) - Police in northern Nigeria say gunmen have kidnapped seven foreign workers from a construction company. The attack happened in Bauchi state overnight Saturday. Police spokesman Hassan Muhammed told The Associated Press that the attack first targeted a prison in the area. Muhammed said Sunday the attackers then went to the construction company Septraco, where they killed a guard and kidnapped the foreign workers. Local government chairman Adamu Aliyu told the AP that those kidnapped were from Britain, Italy, Greece and Lebanon.

Two radio journalists have reportedly been charged in northern Nigeria on suspicion of airing a broadcast that incited the slayings of women vaccinating people against polio. The case centers on a program aired days before the shootings last week. Police said at least nine immunization workers were killed by gunmen Friday in the northern city of Kano, where suspicion toward vaccines has thwarted the campaign against polio. It is still unclear who was behind the attacks; no arrests have been reported.

? Eight people were killed and three were injured Friday in car bombings that hit Nigeria's capital near a parade marking the 50th anniversary of independence, police said. The two explosions occurred an hour after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Nigeria's biggest rebel group, issued an e-mail warning saying it had planted several bombs and telling people to evacuate the area. A Reuters cameraman said security forces and firefighters in the capital, Abuja, had been trying to douse a fire in a car after the first explosion when the second blast struck.

Nine women working to immunize children against polio were killed Friday when gunmen opened fire on them in northern Nigeria, Kano state police said. Women involved in the vaccination drive were targeted in two areas of the northern city of Kano, news reports said. Witnesses told the Associated Press that the death toll appeared to be higher than what police had reported, saying eight were killed in one attack and four were dead in another. One injured woman told Agence France-Presse that two men stormed into a clinic and started shooting, then set a curtain on fire and fled, shutting the door.

Dozens of prisoners broke out of their cells and tried to escape early Monday morning as Nigerian authorities battled with gunmen at a police station on the edge of Abuja. Two officers were killed during the gunfight, police spokesman Frank Mba said in a statement . Thirty prisoners broke free during the melee, Mba said, but all but five were returned to custody thanks to "tactical and coordinated efforts. " Two suspected members of the "large number" of attackers were also arrested, according to the police statement.