Nigeria's top Muslim spiritual leader has sought to calm tensions after a series of deadly attacks on Christmas Day. The Sultan of Sokoto said he wanted to assure all Nigerians that there was no conflict between Muslims and Christians. He was speaking after a meeting with the country's President Goodluck Jonathan. The Islamist sect Boko Haram said it carried out the bombings, which killed around 40 people, most of them in a Roman Catholic church.
An official estimate in Portugal suggests that more than 1% of the population may have emigrated this year. In a newspaper interview, a Portuguese minister said up to 120,000 people had left the country over the past 12 months. From Lisbon, here's Alison Roberts.
Estimating emigration is notoriously hard in a European Union with free movement and with tens of thousands of Portuguese having the right to citizenship in countries such as Angola. But a host of recent indicators point to an
exodus
on a scale last seen in the early 1970s when Portugal was still at dictatorship. The latest wave of emigration includes many qualified workers, such as engineers. Even the prime minister has suggested that teachers who fail to get placed in schools here could try their luck abroad. His comments triggered a storm of protest. Alison Roberts
With Kim Jong-il's funeral due to begin in the next few hours, North Korean media has been reporting supernatural events following the late leader's death. The communist party newspaper said owls had been weeping each day while Radio Pyongyang said an unidentified white bird was seen brushing off snow from his statue.