Port Harcourt

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- At least 21 workers, most of them foreigners, were kidnapped yesterday in three separate attacks in Nigeria's oil- rich delta region that left a Nigerian soldier dead, officials and witnesses said. Eight foreigners and a Nigerian driver were later freed. The main militant group in the region claimed responsibility for one of the attacks, on a ship anchored off Port Harcourt, and later said it had released the eight workers kidnapped there. The group, however, denied it was behind separate raids on a power plant and bar. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta...

OIL ON WATER By Helon Habila Norton, 239 pp., paperback, $14.95 Helon Habila often takes issue with his fellow African writers for dwelling too much on history, in part because historical fiction seemingly reinforces African stereotypes. In a 2003 interview, he said, “There are things to write about that are not just Africans going naked … where everybody speaks in proverbs. We have to write about what’s happening now.’’ His latest novel, “Oil on Water,’’ is a far more effective refutation of stereotype and historicism than any of his public statements.

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- Gunmen smashed in the windows of a car carrying a British girl to school yesterday and kidnapped the 3-year-old in the first seizure of a foreign child in Nigeria's increasingly lawless oil region. The British government called for the immediate release of Margaret Hill, who was taken from her car as it idled in Port Harcourt's morning traffic. Nigerian community leaders were outraged. "Taking an innocent child by force is a criminal act that should be roundly condemned by Nigerians," said Anabs Saraigbe, an influential chief of the ethnic Ijaw...

HOUSTON — A woman who fled to Nigeria after a fire at her Houston day-care center killed four children was returned to the United States yesterday and has waived extradition to Texas, authorities said. Jessica Tata landed at an Atlanta airport shortly after 5 a.m. on a flight from Lagos, Nigeria, according to the US Marshals Service. The 22-year-old was booked into the Fulton County jail, where she will remain until Texas authorities arrange to pick her up, probably within a week, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

NEW YORK -- Crude oil futures jumped above $73 a barrel on intensified supply worries, after police said gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped at least two foreign oil workers from a bus in a second day of attacks targeting such workers. The workers were riding on a bus to work in Port Harcourt when they were abducted, Police Commissioner Samuel Adetuyi said. He gave no further details. In Italy, the Foreign Ministry said an Italian and possibly two more people were kidnapped yesterday in the area in what appeared to be the same incident.

LAGOS, Nigeria — A stampede at a political rally in Nigeria killed 11 people and injured dozens more as President Goodluck Jonathan spoke, highlighting the insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation as it prepares for national elections in April. Authorities in this volatile West African country often have little training in crowd control, and in recent months militants attacked an event attended by the president. Western nations hope Nigeria’s elections will be calm.

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Gunmen in speedboats attacked a Shell gas plant early yesterday , sparking a firefight and kidnapping five South Korean contractors in the latest violence to hit Africa's leading crude producer. Police spokesman Haz Iwendi in the capital, Abuja, said one policeman was in critical condition , and four civilians were injured. The Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta, which claimed responsibility, has been responsible for a wave of attacks and abductions this year in the country's oil-rich southern delta.

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- A Nigerian jetliner carrying 110 people, most of them schoolchildren heading home for Christmas, crashed in stormy weather yesterday while landing in this delta oil port, killing at least 103 people, officials said. Sam Adurogboye, a spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, said early reports indicated that seven people survived the crash of the Sosoliso Airlines' McDonnell Douglas DC-9, which left the capital, Abuja. "They were breathing and were taken to the hospital.

LONDON -- Oil prices retreated from highs reached last week due to balmy weather in the United States, but stayed above $62 a barrel yesterday as blasts tore through two oil company facilities in southern Nigeria. Prices had risen steadily last week on renewed supply concerns as US inventories fell and after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to cut output in February. But mild weather in the continental US and forecasts calling for more of it through the remainder of this month weighed heavily on heating oil and natural gas futures,...

PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Supreme Court suspended the presidential appointment of two top judges in an emergency ruling yesterday that could cause a destabilizing clash between the judiciary and the Western-backed government. As local media reported the country was headed into a political crisis, President Asif Ali Zardari’s spokesman dismissed rumors the government was planning to declare a state of emergency. YEMEN Rebels are meeting terms of cease-fire SANA - Yemen’s northern rebels have withdrawn from an occupied airport and begun...

LAGOS, Nigeria — A stampede at a political rally in Nigeria killed 11 people and injured dozens more as President Goodluck Jonathan spoke, highlighting the insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation as it prepares for national elections in April. Authorities in this volatile West African country often have little training in crowd control, and in recent months militants attacked an event attended by the president. Western nations hope Nigeria’s elections will be calm.

PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Supreme Court suspended the presidential appointment of two top judges in an emergency ruling yesterday that could cause a destabilizing clash between the judiciary and the Western-backed government. As local media reported the country was headed into a political crisis, President Asif Ali Zardari’s spokesman dismissed rumors the government was planning to declare a state of emergency. YEMEN Rebels are meeting terms of cease-fire SANA - Yemen’s northern rebels have withdrawn from an occupied airport and begun...

NEW YORK - Crude oil prices briefly soared to $100 a barrel yesterday for the first time, reaching that milestone amid an unshakeable view that global demand for oil and petroleum products will outstrip supplies. Surging economies in China and India fed by oil and gasoline have sent prices soaring over the past year, while tensions in oil-producing nations like Nigeria and Iran have increasingly made investors nervous and invited speculators to drive prices even higher. Violence in Nigeria helped give crude the final push to $100.

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- Gunmen smashed in the windows of a car carrying a British girl to school yesterday and kidnapped the 3-year-old in the first seizure of a foreign child in Nigeria's increasingly lawless oil region. The British government called for the immediate release of Margaret Hill, who was taken from her car as it idled in Port Harcourt's morning traffic. Nigerian community leaders were outraged. "Taking an innocent child by force is a criminal act that should be roundly condemned by Nigerians," said Anabs Saraigbe, an influential chief of the...

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- At least 21 workers, most of them foreigners, were kidnapped yesterday in three separate attacks in Nigeria's oil- rich delta region that left a Nigerian soldier dead, officials and witnesses said. Eight foreigners and a Nigerian driver were later freed. The main militant group in the region claimed responsibility for one of the attacks, on a ship anchored off Port Harcourt, and later said it had released the eight workers kidnapped there. The group, however, denied it was behind separate raids on a power plant and bar. The Movement for the...

LONDON -- Oil prices retreated from highs reached last week due to balmy weather in the United States, but stayed above $62 a barrel yesterday as blasts tore through two oil company facilities in southern Nigeria. Prices had risen steadily last week on renewed supply concerns as US inventories fell and after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to cut output in February. But mild weather in the continental US and forecasts calling for more of it through the remainder of this month weighed heavily on heating oil and natural gas...

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- One of seven foreign oil workers taken hostage yesterday was killed and another was wounded during a rescue attempt that also left two kidnappers and a soldier dead, officials said. Gunmen had seized the seven hostages from a supply vessel belonging to a subsidiary of Italian oil giant Eni SpA about 30 miles off the coast of southern Nigeria in the latest attack by militants on facilities in the volatile Niger Delta, where most of the country's oil is produced.

WASHINGTON -- Crude oil futures jumped above $72 a barrel yesterday after the fatal shooting of an American oil worker in Nigeria and a refinery snag in Texas exacerbated supply concerns. The rally came in spite of US government data released yesterday that showed an increase in oil and gasoline supplies, highlighting just how nervous the market remains about everything from geopolitics to the weather. At about $70 a barrel, oil futures prices have been supported for weeks by concerns ranging from the West's diplomatic confrontation with Iran, a thin supply cushion,...

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- One of seven foreign oil workers taken hostage yesterday was killed and another was wounded during a rescue attempt that also left two kidnappers and a soldier dead, officials said. Gunmen had seized the seven hostages from a supply vessel belonging to a subsidiary of Italian oil giant Eni SpA about 30 miles off the coast of southern Nigeria in the latest attack by militants on facilities in the volatile Niger Delta, where most of the country's oil is produced.

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Gunmen in speedboats attacked a Shell gas plant early yesterday , sparking a firefight and kidnapping five South Korean contractors in the latest violence to hit Africa's leading crude producer. Police spokesman Haz Iwendi in the capital, Abuja, said one policeman was in critical condition , and four civilians were injured. The Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta, which claimed responsibility, has been responsible for a wave of attacks and abductions this year in the country's oil-rich southern delta.