Nigeria

Officials claim victory over Islamic sect

Nigeria declared Saturday it had put down an armed uprising by an Islamic movement seeking to create a Muslim state in Africa’s most populous nation, after ongoing battles that killed at least eight people.

Two police officers and at least six of the militants died in five days of clashes in three towns in predominantly Islamic Yobe state, including the capital, Damaturu, said Ibrahim Jirigi, a state government spokesman. Details of the fighting in the remote northeastern region had been difficult to obtain.

The uprising, by a largely university-based Nigerian student group preaching Islamic revolution, stood as one of the most concerted offensives in three years of Christian-Muslim violence since Yobe and 11 other northern states began instituting Islamic law, or Shariah.

Italy

Food company probe includes NYC search

Italian officials questioned the jailed former chief executive of Parmalat again Saturday, a day after authorities in New York searched the office of an attorney for the bankrupt food and dairy giant.

The attorney, Gianpaolo Zini, is jailed in Milan in connection with the widening investigation into the collapse of Parmalat, whose balance sheets may be more than $10 billion in the hole.

Prosecutors say Parmalat’s chief executive Calisto Tanzi, who also is under arrest, has admitted diverting up to $620 million from Parmalat to his family’s tourism businesses.

The financial troubles at the multinational firm emerged Dec. 19, when Bank of America Corp. revealed it was not holding nearly $5 billion for a Cayman Islands subsidiary of the company as Parmalat had claimed. Parmalat had some 200 subsidiaries and operations in 30 countries.