LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria will equip its international airports with full-body scanners next year after a 23-year-old Nigerian man tried to blow up a U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day, an aviation official said on Wednesday.

Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority chief Harold Demuren said Nigeria had started the process of acquiring the machines, which use radio waves to generate a picture of the body that can see through clothing and spot hidden weapons or packages.

LAGOS (Reuters) – The foiled Christmas Day bomb attack on a U.S. airliner has put further pressure on ailing Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua to either confirm he is fit to govern or hand over to his deputy.

Yar’Adua has been in Saudi Arabia for more than a month being treated for a heart condition and uncertainty over how a succession would be handled if his health worsens risks plunging Africa’s most populous nation into political crisis.

LAGOS (Reuters) – A Nigerian man who tried to blow up a U.S. passenger jet had lived outside the West African nation for some time and only returned on the eve of the foiled attack, the Nigerian government said on Sunday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged on Saturday in the United States with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board.

LAGOS, Dec 27 (Reuters) – A Nigerian man who tried to blow
up a U.S. passenger jet had lived outside the West African
nation for some time and only returned on the eve of the foiled
attack, the Nigerian government said on Sunday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged on Saturday in
the United States with trying to blow up Northwest Airlines
flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas
Day with almost 300 people on board. [ID:nN26132671]

LAGOS, Dec 27 (Reuters) – A Nigerian man who tried to blow
up a U.S. passenger jet went through normal security checks when
he began his journey in Lagos and had a multiple-entry U.S. visa
issued in London, a senior Nigerian aviation official said.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged on Saturday with
trying to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253, a Delta-owned
Airbus 330, as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas
Day with almost 300 people on board. [ID:nN26132671]

LAGOS (Reuters) – A Nigerian charged on Saturday with trying to blow up a U.S. passenger plane is the son of a prominent former banker, a family member said on Saturday, shocking the country’s wealthy elite.

The 23-year-old, named by U.S. officials as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was taken into custody after being overpowered by passengers and crew as the Christmas Day flight approached Detroit from Amsterdam.

LAGOS (Reuters) – A Nigerian man linked to al Qaeda tried to set off an explosive device aboard a U.S. passenger plane as it approached Detroit on Friday, but was overpowered by passengers and crew, officials said.

Following are questions and answers about Islam in West Africa and radical groups which have tried to gain a foothold.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> has not informed the government of any plans to sell oil fields in Nigeria, as reported by several newspapers over the weekend, Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia said on Monday.

The UK’s Sunday Times reported that Europe’s largest oil company planned to sell fields valued at up to $5 billion as the OPEC member prepares to impose harsher terms on foreign operators and hand greater control to domestic oil firms.

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian militants said on Saturday they had carried out their first attack on an oil pipeline since an amnesty offer because the absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua was delaying peace talks.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said its fighters, armed with rocket launchers and machine guns, carried out a “warning strike” overnight on a Royal Dutch Shell or Chevron pipeline in Abonemma, Rivers state.