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The 25-year-old Nigerian national was reportedly seen tending a small blaze about six days before the Station fire started in the same area. Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives hope to question a man who was spotted tending a small fire in the vicinity of the Station fire almost one week before that deadly blaze erupted in the Angeles National Forest. At a news conference Monday, homicide detectives requested the public's help in locating a 25-year-old homeless man who was caught "feeding" a small, uncontrolled fire in the early afternoon of Aug. 20 -- six days before the start of the...

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AFP) – Three top Nigerian militant leaders in the volatile oil hub of the Niger Delta gave up their weapons along with thousands of fighters on Saturday under a government amnesty. A senior commander of the main armed group MEND surrendered his weapons in the oil city of Port Harcourt, on the eve of the expiry date of the amnesty extended to rebels who have wrought havoc on Nigeria's oil industry in recent years. "I Farah Dagogo, overall field commander for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) accepts together with field commanders in...

July 26, 2009 News services report an early morning attack on a police station in Bauchi City, Nigeria, by the Nigerian Taliban, AKA Boko Haram. The initial attack was repelled, and the police evidently chased the attackers into the adjoining neighborhood. Total death toll includes one police officer and 40+- others - mostly Taliban, some civilians as well.

Tampa, Florida - A police officer who mouthed off while picking up his uniform at the cleaners has been indicted on a charge of threatening President George W Bush for allegedly saying he would shoot him and his father if someone gave him the bullets. Joseph Mazagwu, 35, surrendered on Friday on charges of threatening the president and lying to investigators. The rookie officer has been suspended from the force and could lose his job. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison. He had no comment after his first court appearance and was released on $25 000...

Swindles in which someone overseas seeks access to a person’s bank account are so well known that most potential victims can spot them in seconds. But one man found success by tweaking the formula, prosecutors say: Rather than trying to dupe an account holder into giving up information, he duped the bank. And instead of swindling a person, he tried to rob a country — of $27 million. To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday, the man, identified as Paul Gabriel Amos, 37, a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to...

SNIPPET: ""Spanish police suspect terrorism links in arrests," from the Associated Press, February 3 (thanks to all who sent this in): The Spanish police arrested 13 people on Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups. A police statement said the detainees — 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian — are suspected of belonging to an international criminal gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and the smuggling of people." SNIPPET: "The police statement said the group is suspected of having contacts in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Thailand. The group allegedly stole passports in...

This landscape of change and fear has been shaped by a singular juxtaposition: One of Europe's biggest concentrations of African immigrants has risen in the heart of Camorra turf. "After the shooting, my wife said: 'Let's pack and leave this place,' " said Nsangu "Sammi" Kagutta, a Tanzanian father of three who owns a nearby Internet center. "They were just poor people trying to get their daily bread. If it was about drugs, they shot the wrong people." Most of the victims were illegal immigrant laborers, though one or two may have been low-level drug pushers, investigators say. The fusillade...

A woman from Sweet Home, Oregon is mired in debt after losing nearly $400,000 to Internet con men in a scheme called the Nigerian scam. Janella Spears, a nursing administrator in Lebanon and church volunteer, took the bait of the e-mail scammers in August 2005 by wiring them $100 on the promise she will get $20.5 million for helping straighten out the finances of a fake relative. Spears continued giving small payments despite warnings from banks because she thought the people communicating with her were honest and real relatives and representatives of banks, credit companies, the police and the FBI....

Woman out $400K to 'Nigerian scam' con artists  Story Updated: Nov 11, 2008 at 9:07 PM PST By Anna Song KATU News and KATU.com Web Staff SWEET HOME, Ore. – Janella Spears doesn’t think she’s a sucker or an easy mark. Besides her work as a nursing administrator, Spears – no relation to the well-known pop star – also teaches CPR and is a reverend who has married many couples. She also communicates with lightning-fast sign language with her hearing-impaired husband.So how did this otherwise lucid, intelligent woman end up sending nearly half a million dollars to a bunch...

Nigerian anti-graft investigators have seized money raised by the head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange to support US presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would give the money back to those who attended a gala dinner in Lagos last month.

(IsraelNN.com) A Nigerian group threatened to break off negotiations for the release of kidnapped Israeli businessman on Thursday night, using the excuse that Israel National News had referred to its members as "terrorists" in a story published earlier Thursday. The group, the "Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta" (MEND), denied responsibility for kidnapping the 60-year-old Israeli businessman who was working in Nigeria but offered assistance in negotiations for his release. According to a report in Reuters, MEND, which is comprised of indigenous gunmen, said Thursday evening that the Israeli hostage "has been located and seems to be a...

    Horror ... Remi Fakorede    Mum's finger horror in court     By STAFF REPORTER Published: 02 Aug 2008     A MUM caused uproar in court when she pulled two fingers from her handbag and said they belonged to one of her children. Mother-of-six Remi Fakorede, 46, now behind bars for a “breathtaking” £925,000 tax credit fraud, claimed they had fallen off as a result of a strong “voodoo” curse that had been placed on her and her family and forced her into crime. One juror burst into tears while the “horrified” judge immediately adjourned the case...

Double checking my spam box before deleting it today I found out I've been dead since precisely December 30th, 2003...and my wife too. And the daughter we never knew we had. Apparently I was never knew I was well off either, since I left "...an estate of 10.2 million Us Dollars". This may explain why I've been feeling so poorly lately.

Martin Lee knew all the reasons you shouldn't respond to spam e-mails. As a software engineer who studies how to block such messages, he'd warned against answering them himself. But he couldn't resist. Lee was struggling to figure out how to stop an especially persistent form of spam - the type that informs recipients they've won the lottery or are sought for a new job, which can masquerade as legitimate e-mails and evade spam filters. As Lee pored over the messages, he wondered who was sending them and who would be tempted to answer them. And he decided to find...

A Nigerian man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for dressing up as a woman and loitering around Lagos international airport, court officials said Tuesday. "He pleaded guilty to the charges and was given 18 months without the option of a fine during his trial on Monday," an official at the court in the Lagos suburb of Ikeja told AFP. It was not clear what Uche Ndubuisi was hoping to achieve with his transvestite antics, but 22 pairs of women's pants, four bras as well as several make-up kits were used as evidence to convict him.

The founder of a private, government-funded school in the District was sentenced to a year in prison yesterday and faces possible deportation for his role in a scheme to steal computers from the Gateway Inc. computer plant in Virginia. Charles Emor, executive director of the SunRise Academy, broke down in tears as he apologized and sought a sentence of home confinement from U.S. District Judge James Robertson in federal court in the District.... The sentence may affect Emor's immigration status. He came to the country from Nigeria legally in 1983, but defense attorney Danny Onorato said the criminal case could...

Nigerian comedian and actor Nkem Owoh was one of the 111 suspected 419 scammers arrested in Amsterdam recently as part of a seven month investigation, dubbed Operation Apollo. Owoh became a well known star within the Nigerian film industry, sometimes colloquially known as Nollywood because of it trite plots, poor dialogue, terrible sound, and low production standards. Owoh starred in the 2003 film Osuofia, and a year later was one of several actors temporarily banned from appearing in movies by Nigeria's Association of Movie Marketers and Producers because he demanded excessive fees and unreasonable contract demands. Owoh became internationally known...

Nigerian Anglican Installs U.S. Bishop May 6, 2007 - 8:34am WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) - A powerful Anglican leader from Nigeria installed a bishop Saturday to lead the conservative U.S. parish network he created, despite a last-minute plea from the head of the Anglican Communion that he cancel his visit. Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria was already in the United States when a spokesman for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams revealed Friday that Williams had tried to intercede. The installation ceremony, held at a nondenominational chapel, went ahead as planned. Bishop Martyn Minns, a former Episcopal clergyman, was given full leadership...

From Ms Helen Nana From frfrfrfr | 03/14/2007 4:06:51 AM MDT read From Ms Helen Nana Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire West Africa. (URGENT ASSISTANCE NEEDED) NB/ Please reply me direct through my private email address (helennana225@yahoo.es) Dearest One. Good a thing to write you. I have a proposal for you-this however is not mandatory nor will in any manner compel you to honour against your will. I am Helen Nana, 21 years old and the only Daughter of my late parents Mr.and Mrs Nana. My father was a highly reputable busnness magnet-(a cocoa merchant)who operated in the capital city of Ivory...

PROVO - A Brigham Young University student has been arrested in the investigation of the sexual assault of a woman in Springville. Police say a 21-year-old man apparently invited the 20-year-old woman to his home, then pulled her into his bedroom where he assaulted her. Officers say the two knew each other through mutual friends. Police reports say the man is a junior at BYU on a student visa from Nigeria. The man was booked into the Utah County Jail on suspicion of forcible sex abuse. He's scheduled to appear in court on Dec 6.