Pope Francis didn't make pets in heaven comment

Vatican City - It was a heartwarming story for legions of pet owners and animal lovers around the world.

Pope Francis, talking to a distraught boy whose pet had died, declared there was a place in heaven for the creatures we share our lives with. His comment was reported this week by many news media outside Italy, with dozens of articles in the United States. It was veritable catnip to social media.

However, it turned out the pope had not made the comment.

Boko Haram 'likely behind Jos, Nigeria bombings'

Lagos - A double bomb attack that killed 31 people in a crowded market in the central Nigerian city of Jos was likely to have been carried out by Boko Haram, the state government said on Friday.

"It's an extension of the terrorist acts that have been penetrating all states and cities," Pam Ayuba, spokesman for the Plateau state governor Jonah Jang, told AFP by telephone.

The blasts happened at about 18:00 on Thursday at a makeshift market near the Terminus bus station, not far from the site of a previous attack in May that left at least 118 dead.

Twin bomb blasts have rocked Jos

Abuja - Twin bomb blasts on Thursday rocked Jos, the capital of Plateau state in north-central Nigeria, killing at least 31 people, the newspaper Vanguard reported.

Reports said the bombs exploded at a makeshift market near a busy motor park and a fast food restaurant.

"The bodies recovered so far are 31, but rescue workers are at the scene and the figures may change," Vanguard quoted a spokesman for Plateau state governor as saying.

Thousands flee Boko Haram

Yola - Dauda Bello came face-to-face with Boko Haram militants but managed to escape their hail of bullets, fleeing to safety after a marathon drive on a brutal mountain road.

"It was terrible... [Boko Haram] was firing in every direction," he told AFP in Yola, the capital of northeast Nigeria's Adamawa state, where he fled from the town of Mubi in late October.

Bello is just one of more than 1.5 million Nigerians forced from their homes by the raging Islamist insurgency, which has left 13 000 dead since 2009 and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis.

18 Critical Things Former President Obasanjo Said About President Jonathan In His New Book

"In the area of corruption, we have been going back steadily from the inception of Yar’Adua’s administration when the ‘hunter’ became the ‘hunted’," Obasanjo states. "Under Jonathan we seem to have gone from frying pan to fire. If in the past corruption was in the corridors of power, it would seem now to be in the sitting room, dining room and bedroom of power."

 his scathing new autobiography, My Watch, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made a series of critical assertions against current President Goodluck Jonathan.