Nearly 70 Dead, 160 Injured in Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion

President Barack Obama

The death toll in an explosion that rocked a fertilizer factory in Texas, United States on Wednesday has been put at between 60 and 70 by local emergency managers in the city.

More than 160 people were also injured and three to four firefighters were missing or unaccounted for, officials told CNN.

Though the AFP news agency said it could not immediately verify the report, it cited local KWTX television as saying that the West Emergency Management Services Director, George Smith, confirmed the death toll.

US Envoy: 60,000 HIV Babies Born Annually in Nigeria

United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence McCulley

The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence McCulley, yesterday raised the alarm that over 60,000 babies are born with HIV annually in the country “even though the infections are preventable”.

Besides, the UNAIDS has disclosed that Nigeria accounts for 21 per cent new infection of HIV/AIDS in infants, saying enough had not been done to reduce the rate of mother-to-child transmission.

The envoy raised the alarm at the Primary Health Centre in Masaka, Nasarawa State, during a tour there to observe the progress being made on Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV supported by President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Cameroon: Boko Haram Have Released Kidnapped French Family

A French family of seven including four children kidnapped in north Cameroon and taken to Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram militants have been released, a senior Cameroon official said on Friday. "They are all alive and well," Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, secretary general of Cameroon's presidency, said in a statement carried by state radio. He said the family had been handed to Cameroon authorities late on Thursday.

The family, which was on holiday, was abducted in February by men on motorcycles, armed with Kalashnikovs in Dabanga about 10 km (six miles) from the Nigerian border near the Waza national park, reports Reuters.