The United Nations has declared the Pakistani capital Islamabad unsafe for the children of its international staff and ordered them out, putting the once tranquil city on a par with Kabul and Somalia.

NIGERIA’S main militant group declared a ceasefire in the southern oil region yesterday, ending the worst spate of militant attacks in years to hit Africa’s oil giant.

Nigeria’s main militant group claimed today that it killed at least 29 military personnel in three separate attacks across the restive southern oil region.

Five men were today charged with the kidnapping of a British oil worker in Nigeria.

Gunmen shot and wounded an American professor and a security guard today at a newspaper office in oil-rich southern Nigeria, according to a man who arrived just after the incident.

Gunmen have seized the three-year-old son of a prominent Nigerian chief in restive southern Nigeria, police said today.

Gunmen attacked an oil facility in southern Nigeria overnight and took two foreigners hostage, private security contractors said today.

A group of gunmen wearing security force uniforms invaded a compound in southern Nigeria and kidnapped four foreign oil workers without firing a shot, police said today.

Militants in restive southern Nigeria today claimed to have bombed three major oil pipelines.

Eight foreign hostages seized by gunmen from an offshore vessel in southern Nigeria today have been released, the militant group that organised the kidnappings said.

Gunmen have kidnapped a British oil worker from an offshore oil rig in southern Nigeria, British officials said today.

Gunmen kidnapped five Chinese workers who were fixing overhead telephone lines in southern Nigeria, officials said.

Armed men have besieged an oil complex in southern Nigerian owned by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, a local leader said today.

One foreign oil worker was killed and another was wounded during a hostage rescue attempt today, according to private security contractors and Nigerian security officials.

The Irish engineer kidnapped in southern Nigeria earlier this month has been released by his captors.

A 39-year-old Irishman is still being held by Nigerian militants today after he was abducted in the city of Port Harcourt on Sunday night.

A Briton was confirmed to be among four people kidnapped from Nigerian night club last night, police say.

Petrol gushing from a ruptured Nigeria pipeline caught fire today as villagers scavenged for free fuel, sparking an inferno that killed up to 200 people and left charred bodies scattered around the site.

Britain circulated a draft UN Security Council resolution yesterday that would move the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands because of the danger he would pose by remaining in the West Africa region.

Officials in an oil-rich southern Nigeria state where militants took nine foreigners hostage, including a British man, were today investigating conflicting reports that three of the captives had been released on medical grounds.

MILITANTS holding nine foreign hostages in Southern Nigeria destroyed an oil pipeline yesterday and blew up a boat in violence that has cut about 20% of crude production in Africa’s oil giant.

Militants holding nine foreign hostages in southern Nigeria said they attacked another oil facility today and blew up a military vessel in ongoing violence that has cut about 20% of crude production in Africa’s oil giant.

Four foreign oil workers held hostage by a militia in southern Nigeria for more than two weeks were released today, a regional government spokesman said.

Families are awaiting news today about the fate of an Irishman and at least one Briton feared to have been kidnapped in two separate incidents in Nigeria.

Investigators are probing the source of a fire that was still blazing today on a ruptured Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in southern Nigeria as the company announced further petroleum production cuts.

A separatist militia group in southern Nigeria says the government has until tomorrow to release its leader, saying that if he remains held for treason it will launch wide attacks on oil companies and the government.

A Nigerian woman who claimed she would be stoned to death if deported to her home country, today lost her legal bid blocking that deportation.

THE Nigerian government warned the Taoiseach last year that Ireland’s loose citizenship laws were well-known internationally and were being abused, Bertie Ahern told TDs yesterday.

International police body Interpol issued a global arrest warrant today for ousted Liberian leader Charles Taylor, with a warning that he “may be dangerous.”

ChevronTexaco Corp will resume the production of 23,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil this week. suspended last week in the wake of the abduction of 18 workers in southern Nigeria.

Crude oil from a ruptured pipeline oozed across farms and into a creek in southern Nigeria, unleashed by what residents and officials said was tampering by unidentified saboteurs.

Five Britons have been taken hostage by raiders on an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria.

Extreme poverty and desperation has meant that children as young as seven are being trafficked in west Africa for cheap labour, according to human rights organisations.