Nigeria's president has missed his weekly cabinet meeting for the third straight time as concerns mounted about his health, while his wife took to Twitter to defend him.

More than half a million children in the west African area wracked by Boko Haram extremists are so malnourished their lives could be in danger unless they get aid, a UN humanitarian official has said.

Boko Haram's leader has urged his fighters to "kill, slaughter and abduct ... and detonate bombs everywhere" in a new video which denies Nigerian government claims that his Islamic extremist group has been crushed.

The Boko Haram extremist group has been driven from its last forest stronghold with fighters on the run and nowhere to hide, Nigeria's president said.

Nearly half a million children will face starvation in north-eastern Nigeria next year and 80,000 will die unless they receive treatment, amid the humanitarian crisis created by Boko Haram's Islamic uprising, the United Nations' children's agency has warned.

USA: A five-year-old boy in New Jersey has picked up the lunch bill for his local police department.

The first kidnapped schoolgirl to escape from Islamic extremist group Boko Haram’s stronghold in the Sambisa Forest has been flown to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, to meet the country’s president.

The first of more than 200 schoolgirls missing for over two years after they were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in Chibok in northeast Nigeria has been found, a parents group and local officials said.

David Cameron has called Nigeria and Afghanistan "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world".

At least 30 people were killed when Boko Haram Islamic extremists struck the north-east Nigerian city of Maiduguri with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers, witnesses said.

Brent crude hit an 11-year low of $36.20 this week, in part because Opec has ceased to function.

Oil giant Shell is “blatantly false” when it claims it is cleaning up spills that continue to destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, Amnesty International has said.

Nigerian troops have driven Boko Haram extremists out of an abandoned north-eastern primary school in a shootout that killed four militants.

Extremists detonated three explosive devices in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, in Nigeria’s north-east.

Suicide bombs have killed at least 64 people in multiple blasts in north-eastern Nigeria, according to officials.

Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremists are offering to free more than 200 young women and girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in exchange for the release of militant leaders held by the government, a human rights activist said.

Five people are dead following a suicide bombing during a Christian church service in north-east Nigeria.

On the first anniversary of the kidnapping by Islamic extremists of hundreds of girls from a school in northeast Nigeria, president-elect Muhammadu Buhari said he cannot promise to find the 219 who are still missing.

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has conceded victory to challenger Muhammadu Buhari.

A car bomb has exploded at a polling station in Nigeria’s south-central Enugu state as people gathered to vote in a presidential election.

About 19 people were killed and 17 others injured in a suicide bombing in north-east Nigeria, a day before the president visited another town hit by violence.

Nigeria’s electoral commission is to postpone presidential and legislative elections for six weeks to give a new multinational force time to secure north-eastern areas under the sway of Boko Haram, an official has said.

An explosion has struck a city in central Nigeria, causing unknown injuries, police said.

NIGERIA lacks competent leaders to tackle its security problems, a former military ruler said yesterday, after Christmas Day bomb attacks on churches by Islamist militants that killed more than two dozen people.

At least 800 people were killed in post election violence that swept across northern Nigeria as it became clear that a northern candidate would not succeed in unseating the southern president, an international human rights group said.

Riots broke out again in Nigeria’s Muslim north today, 24 hours after protesters set fire to churches and homes of ruling party supporters when national election results showed that the Christian candidate had won.

Nigeria's president called for calm and national unity today after violent riots swept across the country's Muslim north, forcing thousands to flee in the wake of the presidential election.

Nigeria’s two biggest opposition parties have issued formal complaints over the recent presidential election.

Rioting erupted in Nigeria’s Muslim north today as official election results likely to keep a Christian leader in charge were being prepared for release.

Nigerian voters are deciding whether to keep their accidental president in power, though unease among the country’s Muslims about the Christian leader could force a runoff in the oil-rich country where elections have long been marred by fraud and violence.

Rioters set homes on fire and youths armed with machetes set up roadblocks through a Nigerian city plagued by violence between Christians and Muslims.

Former US president George Bush and ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined Nigeria’s elite at a ceremony honouring its political and business establishment, but one winner’s absence highlighted the endemic corruption and other problems plaguing the oil-rich nation.

Police have arrested dozens of protesters, including Nobel laureate author Wole Soyinka, after firing tear gas during an anti-government protest today in Nigeria’s commercial capital.

PROMISING to tackle his country’s poverty and corruption, President Olusegun Obasanjo took the oath of office for a second term as Nigeria’s leader yesterday — a landmark for civilian-run democracy in Africa’s most populous nation.

Nigeria's opposition has warned that a "massive revolt" will take place unless newly re-elected President Olusegun Obasanjo resigns and lets authorities launch a new round of corruption-free voting.

NIGERIA’S newly re-elected President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday ignored a torrent of claims that his spectacular victory was achieved by crude vote-rigging.

Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged opposition parties to "accept defeat gracefully" and drop threats of massive protests over balloting they say was rigged, following his landslide re-election.

PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has won Nigeria’s presidential election, according to official results released yesterday.

International observers said today that stolen ballot boxes and fudged tallies could compromise Nigerians’ confidence in presidential elections held over the weekend.

International observers said today that stolen ballot boxes and fudged tallies could compromise Nigerians’ confidence in presidential elections held over the weekend.

PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo took a commanding lead in early returns from voting that could bring Nigeria’s first successful transition from one civilian government to another, but the main opposition party claimed the vote was rigged and a “huge joke”.