The head of the Nigerian electoral commission has postponed elections in two northern states after violence that followed the country's recent presidential poll. Earlier on Thursday, Nigeria's re-elected President Goodluck Jonathan insisted state elections would go ahead as planned across the country. Danny Aeberhard reports.
The head of Nigeria's electoral commission, Attahiru Jega, said governorship and state assembly elections in two of the areas worst affected by the violence, Kaduna and Bauchi, would be postponed by two days, to Thursday of next week. This, he told a press conference, would allow tempers there to cool and security to be improved.
Dozens of people were killed, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced in the rioting, which first broke out on Monday when it became clear that Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, had defeated a Muslim candidate from the mostly Muslim north.
The President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, has signed decrees ending nearly 50 years of emergency rule. He announced last week that he would lift the long-standing emergency laws, one of the main demands of anti-government demonstrators. The president has also
abolish
ed the state security courts and decided to allow peaceful protests.
Scientists say the planet Saturn experienced a phenomenon similar to the northern lights that are witnessed on Earth. The flickering lights at the planet's poles were detected by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft, which has been studying Saturn since 2004. The lights are caused by a flow of electrically charged particles to and from one of Saturn's moons.