Nigeria bans 'terror motorbikes'

8 July 2011 Last updated at 11:50 GMT Both commercial and private motorbikes have been banned in Maiduguri Motorbikes have been banned from the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri to prevent drive-by attacks by the radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram.

Officials said no-one would be able to ride motorbikes at any time in the city, Boko Haram's stronghold.

The group's trademark has been to use gunmen on motorbikes to assassinate security officers and politicians.

Boko Haram is fighting for Islamic rule and has rejected talks with the government.

At least 40 people have been killed in Maiduguri, the main city in Borno state, in the past two weeks in attacks blamed on the group.

Last month, the group said it had carried out an attack on the headquarters of the Nigerian police in the capital, Abuja, which killed at least six people.

Soldiers attacked

The Borno state government said it was now imposing a 24-hour ban on motorbikes in the city.

"The ban includes private as well as commercial motorcycles of all categories that operate within Maiduguri metropolis," Usman Ciroma, spokesman for the Borno state governor, said in a statement.

Correspondents say motorbikes are one of the most common forms of transport in Maiduguri, as most people cannot afford cars.

The AFP news agency reports that the governor, Kashim Shettima, warned that the ban could be extended.

"If the security situation does not improve following this ban, the government will extend the ban to cover the whole state," he was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday, Boko Haram fighters threw an explosive device at a military patrol in Maiduguri, wounding three officers.

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US drops Bin Laden terror charges

17 June 2011 Last updated at 20:11 GMT The bombs at US embassies in Kenya, shown above, and Tanzania, exploded just moments apart US prosecutors have asked a judge to drop terrorism charges against Osama Bin Laden, arguing his killing by US forces last month voids the case.

Bin Laden was indicted in federal court in 1998 in connection with the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people in August 1998.

In court filings, officials said DNA and facial-recognition technology enabled the US to identify his body.

The al-Qaeda chief was killed in May in a US raid on his home in Pakistan.

Genetic match

In a court filing in New York City, federal prosecutors revealed new details about the process used to identify Bin Laden's body after he was shot dead in a night-time raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

According to the filings, following a firefight the US Navy Seal special forces team collected DNA samples from the body presumed to be Bin Laden's and transported them to a US military base in Afghanistan.

Prosecutors also cited videos seized from Bin Laden's compound as proof of his identity

There, military and CIA technicians matched the sample with DNA collected from "multiple members" of Bin Laden's family.

George Toscas, a counter-terrorism and counter-espionage official in the US justice department, wrote in a filing that the possibility of a mistaken identification stemming from the DNA tests was "approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion".

The US used facial recognition technology comparing facial bone structure, age spots, hair-growth patterns, and the size, shape and relative position of the eyes, ears and nose to known photographs of the al-Qaeda chief, Mr Toscas wrote.

One of Bin Laden's wives, who was present on the third floor of the compound when he was killed, also confirmed his identity.

And finally, Bin Laden's purported successor as al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, acknowledged he was dead in a recent video address to supporters, prosecutors said.

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