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Pakistan grapples with polio fight
5/6/2014 9:28:34 AM
- India celebrated its polio-free certification in late March
- Its neighbor Pakistan grapples with polio efforts with several cases reported in 2014
- World Health Organization recommends emergency measures in Pakistan
- Pakistan has public health challenges including tribal areas, threats to health workers
(CNN) -- More than a month ago, the public health community celebrated the polio-free certification of Southeast Asia including India, viewed as a hopeful step toward global eradication.
But the euphoria has waned as concerns grow the virus is making a comeback and re-appearing in countries that had previously eliminated the disease within their borders.
Pakistan has seen major challenges in recent years, reporting 80% of polio cases this year.
The country faces challenges within its health system including restricted access to its federally administered tribal areas and violence against polio campaign health workers. Vaccine workers have been tortured, shot, bombed, and even have had their family members kidnapped.
"You have disruption of health services, vaccination services are broken where areas are no-go because there is mistrust and health teams are not allowed within the conflict area," said Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, who is co-director of The Hospital for Sick Children in Canada and also works in Pakistan. "In that particular circumstance, to imagine that business would be as usual is naïve."
While Pakistan faces hurdles, India's polio program has been lauded as a model for tackling polio.
India's program "was largely internally funded, strongly managed," said Bhutta.
Once considered the hardest place to end polio, India boosted disease surveillance and immunization efforts to vaccinate hard-to-reach communities. To counter rumors and misgivings about the vaccine, social mobilizers, religious leaders and parents were included to increase understanding about immunizations.
"In Pakistan, that political will in terms of making this a national priority hasn't existed," Bhutta said. "They haven't invested enough in routine immunizations, which are critical to eradicating polio. You've got to get people aware of the importance of preventive strategies."
In 2014, the World Health Organization confirmed 74 new cases of polio -- 59 of them were in Pakistan. Within Pakistan, 46 of these cases have been from its restive Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which is located along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and retains internal autonomy.
The country with the second highest number of polio cases is Afghanistan, which reported four cases. But all of these are related to viruses that originated from Pakistan, according to the WHO.
Emergency measures recommended
On Monday, the WHO recommended emergency measures for three of the countries deemed as the greatest risk for further exporting the virus -- Syria, Cameroon and Pakistan.
The organization called for residents of these countries to get vaccinated and show proof of polio immunization before international travel. It also calls for the head of state to declare polio a national public health emergency.
"If the situation as of today and April 2014 went unchecked, it could result in failure to eradicate globally one of the world's most serious vaccine preventable diseases," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general for polio, emergencies and country collaboration at the WHO.
Pakistan has been establishing vaccination booths at its land borders with Afghanistan, China, India and also Iran, according to the WHO.
Zulfiqar Bhutta, Hospital for Sick Children in Canada
Bhutta said he wasn't surprised by the WHO's move, but worried the recommendation was a "Band-Aid measure" that's "not going get to the root of the problem."
This may divert the vaccines and human resources from Pakistan communities that need them the most, to the huge number of travelers, Bhutta said. "I'm concerned that will take away from the main polio control program and that's the last thing anybody wanted."
Pakistan is considered the only country that is "off track" in meeting its target to stop polio transmission, according to the WHO.
Militants in Pakistan have targeted anti-polio campaigns since U.S. intelligence officials used a fake vaccination program to aid their hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2011. Since then, militant groups, with connections to the Pakistani Taliban, have been opposing polio vaccinations and accusing health workers of pursuing a political agenda. Dozens have been killed in acts of violence carried out against polio vaccine workers.
Pakistan has tried to protect its health workers from violence. In Peshawar, authorities banned the riding of motorcycles during vaccine campaigns to prevent attacks, said Aylward.
Polio, which can cause permanent paralysis in hours, has been reported in 10 countries: Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Somalia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Cameroon and Syria.
READ: WHO sounds alarm on polio spread
6 injured in Chinese station attack
5/6/2014 9:21:15 AM
- The violence took place at a railway station in Guangzhou city in southern China
- A bombing at a station in western China last week killed one and injured about 80
- There has been a rise in separatist violence in restive Xinjiang province
(CNN) -- Men with knives attacked travelers at the Guangzhou Train Station Plaza in southern China, injuring six people, police said Tuesday.
All of the injured were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Police said they shot and captured one of the attackers.
The incident comes less than a week after bombing and knife attacks at a rail station in western China killed one person and injured nearly 80 others, Xinhua reported. Two suspects, described as religious extremists, also died.
The attacks took place Wednesday at Urumqi South Railway Station in restive Xinjiang province. Police said "knife-wielding mobs" attacked people at one of the station's exits following an explosion.
There has been a rise in separatist violence in the autonomous region in the northwest of the country.
READ: 3 killed, 79 hurt in blast, knife attack at China train station
READ: March: Knife-wielding attackers kill 29, injure 130 at China train station
22 migrants drown off Greek island
5/6/2014 9:21:35 AM
- At least 22 people drown, 10 others are missing off the Greek island of Samos
- Greek coast guard has rescued 36 survivors, and a search operation is under way
- Thousands from Africa and the Middle East have packed into boats to get into the EU
(CNN) -- At least 22 people have drowned and 10 more are missing after two boats carrying migrants capsized off the Greek island of Samos, a coast guard official said Monday.
Thirty-six survivors have been rescued from the Aegean Sea, and the search is continuing, Katherine Tenta of the Greek coast guard told CNN by phone.
The two vessels foundered about 4 nautical miles off Samos, Tenta said, adding that authorities did not yet know their nationalities.
Thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East pack into often unsafe boats to get into the European Union through Greece, Italy, Malta and other coastal states. The numbers have increased since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings triggered unrest across North Africa and civil war in Syria.
"A 3-year-old child, in a bad condition, has been transferred to a hospital in Athens," Tenta said.
Two search and rescue helicopters -- with help from two coast guard vessels, a navy warship and a cruise liner -- were searching for the missing.
Tenta said the coast guard towed the vessels -- a 10-meter long boat and a smaller vessel -- to Samos. She said 18 bodies were on one: 10 women, five men and three children.
It is not yet clear what caused the boats to capsize, she said.
CNN's Marie-Louise Gumuchian contributed to this report.
ANC is losing respect
5/6/2014 8:37:23 PM
- South Africa's fifth democratic elections are held this Wednesday - first since Nelson Mandela's death
- President Jacob Zuma is most divisive figure in South African politics today, says Justice Malala
- Malala: Several scandals have wracked his administration since he came to power in 2009
- He predicts Zuma will win power, but ANC will lose share of the vote
Editor's note: Justice Malala is a South African political commentator, newspaper columnist and talk show host. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Johannesburg (CNN) -- Sunday could not have begun any better for South Africa's ruling African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela. As the autumn sun rose and warmed the seats of the 95,000-seater, calabash-shaped FNB Stadium, supporters poured in from across the country.
By mid-morning the stadium was packed to the rafters. The beautiful, melodic songs used by activists through the years of struggle against apartheid until 1994 when Mandela was voted into power filled the stadium. Party activists crowed about the party's pulling power: no other political party in the country has yet managed to fill the stadium.
This was the last political rally before new South Africa's fifth democratic elections are held. All the major parties staged political rallies, but the ANC sought to present a show of force as it attempts to swat off challenges from the relentless opposition Democratic Alliance and the upstart, Left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters launched a few months ago by expelled former ANC Youth leader Julius Malema.
Then the ANC's leader, President Jacob Zuma, rose to address the packed stadium. Within half an hour of his plowing into a statistics-laden speech, nearly half the stadium seats were empty. A laborious and monotonous speaker at best, Zuma struggled through the speech, igniting only a few rounds of applause from die-hard supporters in the hour-long delivery. It was only at the end, when he burst into his election signature song Yinde Lendlela ("This Road Is Long," as opposed to his other favorite, "Give Me My Machine Gun") that some energy returned to the crowd.
The scandal-soaked Zuma -- who was booed in front of U.S. President Barack Obama, Cuba's Raul Castro and other world leaders at the same stadium on December 10 last year during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela -- has become the most divisive figure in South African politics today and the pivot around which electioneering and questions about the country's future have swung. As he spoke, a scandal about the national ombudsman's report into how he unduly benefited from the building of a $25 million palace for him at his rural KwaZulu Natal village was intensifying. A $200 million town is also being built near his home, claimed a newspaper.
Other scandals have wracked his administration since he came to power in 2009. Questions continue to be raised about his closeness to an Indian family that employs his son and wife and which landed a private jet filled with 200 wedding guests from India at a top-security military base; his evasion of more than 700 charges of fraud and corruption due to the influence of intelligence services and numerous suspect business connections by members of his family.
In all these cases, Zuma has said that he did not know and that people abused his name to gain favor.
Yet, despite the cocktail of scandals and gaffes that engulf Zuma, there is no doubt here that the ANC will win the election on Wednesday and Zuma will be returned to the presidency. According to a South African Sunday Times poll released on May 4, the ANC will get 63.9% of the vote, down from the 65.9% the party won in the 2009 general election. The opposition DA will increase its support to 23.7% while Malema's EFF party is expected to get 4.7%.
If there is so much disenchantment with Zuma, then, why is he headed for victory? History, for one. In Zuma's speech on Sunday he went through a long list of achievements by the ANC in the 20 years of democracy. It is an impressive roll call: ubiquitous access to water, electricity and health services. About 16 million people are now on social grants while there is universal access to no-fee schools. The dignity of full citizenship has been restored to blacks like me, a powerful, deep act that resonates with many. We still enjoy a free and vigorous press, despite iniquitous new legislation waiting to be enacted by Zuma that will criminalize much newsgathering.
Yet this narrative -- which the ANC has harnessed in its election slogan: "We have a good story to tell" -- is incomplete. Violent strikes over poor services are on a sharp increase, with the SA Police Services reporting a total of 569 protests in three months in South Africa's wealthiest province, Gauteng. About 122 of these turned violent.
Reports of corruption are on the increase, with Transparency International's 2013 global Corruption Perception Index showing that South Africa has dropped 17 places since Zuma came to power in 2009. South Africa is currently ranked 72 out of 175 countries.
The economy is taking a beating under Zuma, with paltry GDP growth of 1.9% last year and unemployment at 24.1% (narrowly defined) or a staggering 36% if one includes those who have given up looking for work. The EFF has found fertile ground among these disaffected youth, with an estimated 30,000 young people turning up to listen to Malema giving his final election speech on Sunday.
Justice Malala
So what happens after Wednesday? Increasingly, South Africa feels like a country caught between its past and its future. For many, the ANC represents the triumph against a heinous apartheid system. The memory of Mandela, so central to that victory, is still fresh. Leaving this party of freedom, which has enjoyed near 70% majorities in the late 1990s and early 2000s, feels like a betrayal of the struggle for freedom.
Yet, slowly, all that is changing. A 63% win by the ANC, for example, will mean that the party is experiencing its second significant decline in two successive elections. With the growing discontent about its government, it is unlikely that it will claw back these losses at the next election in 2019.
The opposition DA, for long regarded as a "white party," is swiftly transforming. Advised by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton's former pollster, Stan Greenberg, it has encouraged the emergence of credible young black leaders. The EFF, in just five months, has become a force to be reckoned with. But both parties are only likely to give the ANC a real run for its money in the 2019 and 2024 elections.
Many are hoping that the ANC will get a scare in these elections and begin to reflect on some of its failures. Among these would be assessing the damage done to the party by Zuma's scandals, and a return to some regard for the people. Indeed, speculation is rife that Zuma may be ousted should the ANC's showing in this election fall to 60%.
That is unlikely. Zuma controls about 75% of the ANC's national executive committee, and it is unlikely that his allies in that powerful body would cut him loose. Given that scenario, he will continue to inflict damage on the party of Mandela -- and on the nation's fortunes.
That would open the window for a stronger challenge from the opposition in 2019 and beyond. On the other hand, President Zuma could attempt to introduce serious economic reforms to build a proud legacy for himself. That, too, seems unlikely.
And so South Africa finds itself caught in a slow, glacial even, journey towards a multi-party future. Loyalty to its past heroes continues to hold it hostage.
About the GOP's Benghazi obsession
5/6/2014 4:30:14 PM
- Sally Kohn: GOP has been desperately "politicizing" Benghazi since it happened
- Kohn: In the fog of attacks, administration reported what it believed was happening
- Pentagon fed up with repetitive, costly GOP requests, 13 hearings, 50 briefings, she says
- Kohn: Benghazi investigations proved GOP wrong over and over, yet GOP will not drop it
Editor's note: Sally Kohn is a CNN political commentator, progressive activist and columnist. Follow her on Twitter @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- What happened in Benghazi, Libya, was a tragedy -- not a scandal. And no amount of Republican witch hunting or wishful thinking will make it otherwise.
Now a new e-mail "reveals" what was already plainly known, that the White House participated in crafting talking points in the aftermath of attacks in Libya and around the globe. Republicans claim the White House "politicized" the talking points. The irony, of course, is that Republicans have been desperate to politicize Benghazi from day one. Fueled by the relentless conservative message machine, it can be hard to have a reasonable discussion about Benghazi, one that relies on facts. So let's try to have that conversation here.
What exactly are the Republican accusations regarding Benghazi?
The main Republican critique appears to be that the White House and State Department politicized talking points given to U.N Ambassador Susan Rice, who spoke about the attacks on American TV five days later. Republicans argue the White House deliberately downplayed the involvement of al Qaeda and played up the spontaneous nature of the protests as a reaction to an anti-Islam video, to avoid tarnishing President Obama's national security record in advance of the 2012 presidential election. This, despite the fact that the White House talking points matched those produced by the CIA.
Republicans also have criticized the Obama administration for not responding to the attacks more aggressively when they happened, though a bipartisan Senate investigation found that military resources simply weren't in position to help. Similarly, Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican most aggressively pressing Benghazi accusations, says he has "suspicions" that Hillary Clinton gave "stand down" orders to stop military resources from deploying to Benghazi even though a Republican report to the Armed Services Committee says that no such "stand down" order was issued.
In addition, Republicans have criticized the Obama administration for not doing more to prevent the attacks, such as beefing up consular security. Yet it was the same House Republicans who initially denied the Obama administration's request for additional embassy security funding.
What do we believe actually happened that night in Benghazi?
The answer to that question depends on when you're asking it. We know that the killing of four Americans on September 11, 2012, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, was in part the result of pre-coordinated terrorist activity. According to an extensive investigation by The New York Times, "The attack does not appear to have been meticulously planned, but neither was it spontaneous or without warning signs." The Times also reports that the attack was "fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam."
But in critiquing the Obama administration's comments in 2012 in the moments during and after the Benghazi attack, what would seem more relevant is what the White House and intelligence community reasonably believed was happening.
After all, at the same time as the unrest in Benghazi, violent outbursts very clearly in reaction to the anti-Islam video were going on in Egypt, Yemen and Sudan. The night of the Benghazi attacks, Al Jazeera reported they appeared to be spontaneous protests against the anti-Islam film.
Of course we don't know the classified intelligence, but it would not seem preposterous to believe what was happening in Benghazi was more spontaneous protests rather than pre-planned terrorism. And even if affiliates of al Qaeda were suspected to be involved, it's not surprising that the intelligence community would not want to show its hand amid active efforts to track and capture those responsible. It was the CIA that removed the reference to al Qaeda, according to e-mails released to CNN by the White House.
Here is what Susan Rice said, four days later, that in retrospect seems so wildly misleading to conservatives:
"Our current best assessment based on the information that we have at present is that, in fact, what this began as was a spontaneous, not a premeditated, response to what had transpired in Cairo. In Cairo, as you know, a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated.
"We believe that folks in Benghazi, a small number of people, came to the embassy to—or to the consulate, rather—to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo. And then, as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons, weapons that, as you know, in the wake of the revolution in Libya, are quite common and accessible. And it then evolved from there."
That seems not only responsibly cautious in the wake of a complicated and still-unfolding national tragedy, but strikingly accurate.
But the talking points were edited! For political motivations!
That's what talking points are, they are the way political figures on both sides of the aisle attempt to tell the facts in the most favorable light. That said, the CIA gave both parties in Congress the same "talking points" it prepared for Rice. And, as noted, there are plausible national security reasons for not wanting to show our entire intelligence hand amid an active investigation.
This responsible caution stands in direct contrast, for instance, to the Bush administration deliberately distorting not only talking points but also actual intelligence reports for political purposes to justify the war in Iraq. Or consider that just hours after the Benghazi killings, even before the White House had made a statement, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney condemned the Obama administration's response. Those talking points were definitely political.
The talking points not only seem consistent with events on the ground at the time but with what we now know, per The New York Times and several congressional reports. Yet that hasn't stopped Sen. John McCain from suggesting that editing talking points amounted to a "cover-up" and Rep. Eric Cantor from saying the White House "misled" the American public.
Can't we have an honest, open investigation and settle this once and for all?
We have. Several times. And then some. So far, Politico reports, Republican congressional investigations on Benghazi have included "13 hearings, 25,000 pages of documents and 50 briefings." In a letter written in March 2014 responding to a request for information from a ranking Democrat in the House Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon notes:
"The department has devoted thousands of man-hours to responding to numerous and often repetitive congressional requests regarding Benghazi, which includes time devoted to approximately 50 congressional hearings, briefings and interviews which the department has led or participated in. The total cost of compliance with Benghazi-related congressional requests sent to the department and other agencies is estimated to be in the millions of dollars."
A bipartisan report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence determined that "there were no efforts by the White House or any other executive branch entities to 'cover-up' facts or make alterations for political purposes." The report did say the attack could have been prevented and blamed the State Department, military and U.S. intelligence community for failing to do so.
What difference does it make?
Great question. And one taken from a quote by Hillary Clinton, made during her testimony on Benghazi to the House Oversight Committee. Conservatives use the line to suggest that Clinton is callous toward the loss of life in Benghazi. No. Here's the full context:
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin: "No, again, we were misled that there were supposedly protests and that something sprang out of that -- an assault sprang out of that -- and that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact, and the American people could have known that within days and they didn't know that."
Clinton: "With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they'd go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.
"Now, honestly, I will do my best to answer your questions about this, but the fact is that people were trying in real time to get to the best information. ... But you know, to be clear, it is, from my perspective, less important today looking backward as to why these militants decided they did it than to find them and bring them to justice, and then maybe we'll figure out what was going on in the meantime."
"I take responsibility," Clinton said four days after the Benghazi attacks, before Susan Rice ever said a word. "I do feel responsible," Clinton reiterated at the hearings in January 2013. When things went wrong in Benghazi, the Obama administration took responsibility.
But when Republicans have the facts wrong on Benghazi, they don't do the responsible thing and drop it. They keep pursuing their partisan witch hunt, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars desperate to smear Obama and 2016 presidential front-runner Clinton with anything that will stick.
The facts on Benghazi simply do not undercut the Obama administration, but that won't stop Republicans from digging for mud.
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Nigeria kidnap horror: More girls taken overnight
5/6/2014 7:30:52 PM
- NEW: Nigeria's President is not "taking this as easy as people all over the world think"
- NEW: "We're not Americans. We're not showing people," a spokesman says
- U.S. offers to create group, including U.S. military personnel, to aid in search
- Nigerian village residents say armed men took eight more girls late Sunday
CNN anchor Isha Sesay will be live from Abuja on CNN International, Monday to Thursday at 5, 7, 8.30 and 9 p.m. CET.
Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigeria defended its response to the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls by a terror group even as details emerged Tuesday about a second mass abduction, adding to a growing global outcry over the fate of the children.
President Goodluck Jonathan has been under mounting international pressure to step up efforts to rescue the girls, who have become the focal point for a global campaign that began on social media and quickly spread to street demonstrations.
"The President and the government is not taking this as easy as people all over the world think," Doyin Okupe, a spokesman for Nigeria's President, told CNN.
"We've done a lot but we are not talking about it. We're not Americans. We're not showing people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something."
Two special battalions have been devoted to the search for the missing girls, including the more than 200 who were abducted from an all-girls school in April, Okupe said.
It was unclear whether these were additional troops being dispatched or were forces already in place. More troops, he said, are also on the way, though he did not detail how many.
U.S. offers military help
The defense by the government came the same day Jonathan said he welcomed an offer of U.S. support in the search for the girls, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, is ready to create a "coordination cell" to provide intelligence, investigations and hostage negotiation expertise, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The cell would include U.S. military personnel, she said.
Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Jonathan on Tuesday to reiterate the offer to help, Psaki said.
Even as Kerry and Jonathan spoke, new details were emerging about the abduction of at least eight girls, between the ages of 12 and 15, who were snatched Sunday night from the village of Warabe.
The village is located in the rural northeast, near the border of Cameroon, an area considered a stronghold for Boko Haram, a group that U.S. officials say has received training from al Qaeda affiliates.
That follows the April 14 abduction of more than 230 girls. According to accounts, armed members of Boko Haram overpowered security guards at an all-girls school in Chibok, yanked the girls out of bed and forced them into trucks. The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest bordering Cameroon.
Boko Haram translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language, and the group has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Africa's most populous nation, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
The United States has branded Boko Haram a terror organization and has put a $7 million bounty on the group's elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau.
In recent years, the group has stepped up its attacks, bombing schools, churches and mosques.
But it is the abductions of girls that has spawned the biggest outrage, with a #BringBackOurGirls campaign that initially began on Twitter and then quickly spread with demonstrators taking to the streets over the weekend in major cities around the world to demand action.
On Tuesday, the United Nations human rights chief blasted Boko Haram, saying the group's claim of slavery and sexual slavery of girls are "crimes against humanity."
"The girls must be immediately returned, unharmed, to their families," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a news release.
'I abducted your girls'
A man claiming to be Shekau appeared Monday in a video announcing he would sell his victims. The video was first obtained by Agence-France Presse.
"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," he said, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language. "There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women."
In the nearly hour-long, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for an end to Western education.
"Girls, you should go and get married," he said.
Pillay, along with three other African United Nations women leaders, sent a letter reminding the Nigerian government of its "legal responsibility to ensure that girls and boys have the fundamental right to education and to be protected from violence, persecution and intimidation," according to her statement.
Nigerian Minister of Information Labaran Maku told CNN that despite international reaction and media reports, there have been some successes in combating Boko Haram.
But when asked about bombings in the capital city of Abuja, which came the same day as the mass abduction of schoolgirls, he said: "In the case of insurgency and guerrilla warfare, you can never rule out surprise here and there."
He also declined to agree that misinformation released by the military in the aftermath of the April kidnapping added to the growing outrage.
First, the military said all the girls had been released or rescued. But after the girls' families began asking where their daughters were, the military retracted the statement.
"When they made that statement, it was based on a report they received," the minister said.
Nigeria's finance minister said Monday that her country's government remains committed to finding the girls but should have done a better job explaining the situation to the public.
"Have we communicated what is being done properly? The answer is no, that people did not have enough information," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told CNN's Richard Quest.
'I will sell them,' Boko Haram leader says
What's at stake in war against girls' kidnappers?
6 reasons why the world should demand action
CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery
CNN's Isha Sesay and Vlad Duthiers reported from Abuja, and Chelsea J. Carter reported and wrote from Atlanta. Journalist Aminu Abubakar contributed to this report from Nigeria, and CNN's Ashley Fantz and Dana Ford contributed from Atlanta.
First search details revealed
5/6/2014 7:38:42 PM
CNN's Isha Sesay speaks to a Nigerian official about the government's response to the kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls.
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New abductions by armed gang
5/6/2014 7:20:38 PM
Villagers in northeast Nigeria tell CNN eight more girls have been abducted by Boko Haram gunmen overnight.
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