Armed men in Nigeria have abducted eight girls, as the government continued to struggle to find 276 schoolgirls kidnapped three weeks ago in the same region.

Pressure is growing for Western military drones to be used in the hunt for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in Nigeria, as the terrorist thought to be holding them threatens to "marry off" girls aged as young as 9.

Islamist military group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the mass abduction of 300 Nigerian schoolgirls. But who is in this group, and what do they really want?

Western countries are in talks with Nigerian security forces to help rescue hundreds of kidnapped schoolgirls still missing three weeks after they were seized.

Nigerian troops were reported to be massing for an assault to try to free hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by a militant Islamist group.

Parents of 230 girls abducted from their boarding school by Nigerian Islamists have had to call off the search for their daughters because of a lack of police back-up.

It is not known if the word "dysfunctional" was invented specifically to describe the Nigerian state.

There might be another silver lining for some members of the Football Ferns after yesterday's dramatic 2-2 draw with Mexico.

Rioters ran amok yesterday in the central Nigerian city of Jos.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is said to be in good spirits.

A Nigerian drug smuggler who duped authorities to get a job in NZ as a hospital psychiatrist came across as friendly but secretive, acquaintances say.

A Nigerian drug smuggler who fooled immigration officials to get a job as a hospital psychiatrist was yesterday jailed for 16 months.

Inspired by a love of Dr Dolittle and Tarzan to go to Tanzania and study chimpanzees, Jane Goodall has now clocked up 50 years of groundbreaking research into their behaviour. Robin McKie charts her extraordinary story.

The brown spots run like a trail of blood down the deserted coastline near this fishing village. Just underneath a handful of sand lies spilled oil.