300 abducted boys released Aussie murders ‘terrorism’

More than 300 schoolboys abducted last week by armed men in northwestern Nigeria have been released, the Katsina state governor said yesterday. “At the moment, 344 of the students have been released and handed over to the security operatives. I think we can say at least we have recovered most of the boys, if not all of them,” Governor Aminu Bello Masari said. Arrangements are being made to transport them to Katsina, he said. News of the release came shortly after a video was released by the jihadist rebels of Boko Haram that purportedly showed the abducted boys. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the abduction. In the more than six-minute video the apparent captors tell one boy to repeat their demands that the government call off its search for them by troops and aircraft.

Australian detectives suspect the deaths of an elderly couple in their Brisbane home is a “terrorism incident” perpetrated by a knifewielding man who was shot dead by police, officials said yesterday. Raghe Abdi, 22, threatened police with a knife before he was shot dead on a highway on the outskirts of Brisbane on Thursday morning, officers said. The bodies of an 87-year-old man and an 86-year-old woman were found in their home later Thursday near where Abdi died, Queensland state Police Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford said. Linford declined to say how they had died but said homicide detectives found evidence that Abdi had been in the house. Australia Federal Police suspect Abdi had been influenced by the Islamic State group. He was arrested on suspicion he was trying to join extremists when he attempted to depart Brisbane Airport for Somalia in May 2019, but was released without charge due to insufficient evidence.