The title: “Nigeria bomber's home town blames foreign schooling”.
When you read into the beginning of the story you find that one person, Ibrahim Bello (65), was asked about the bomber.
And Mr. Bello apparently KNOWS that “Everyone knew the Mutallabs and the father is honest, generous, helpful and above all a prominent banker.”
Well then, no need to research any further, Mr. Bello speaks for the entire town ... AND ... that he can vouch for the family. But in the next breath he states ... “But many of us did not know the children of the Mutallabs because they did not grow up here in Funtua, ...”.
So which is it? Were the Mutallabs honest, generous? Or you did not know anything of the Mutallabs except for the old man?
Can a Reuters put together a real story without generalizations and assumptions? Facts please ... the who, what, where, when, and why of the subject is the news story.
The old man is probably ok, basically just a corrupt, wealthy but non-ideological African bureaucrat.
The mad-bomber son renounced his family some years ago because they weren’t “Islamic enough.” However, somebody somewhere was giving him support, since he was unemployed but living quite well indeed - and obviously didn’t have any trouble buying airline tickets.
I think it is the latter.