UN to contact AT&T over wiretap report

NEW YORK • The United Nations plans to contact AT&T following a report that the telecoms giant helped US intelligence wiretap online communications at the world body's headquarters, a spokesman said on Monday.

The New York Times reported that AT&T, which provides the Internet line to the UN in New York, had granted the United States' National Security Agency access to billions of e-mail messages and helped wiretap exchanges.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Mass casualties in Boko Haram raid

KANO (Nigeria) • Up to 150 people drowned in a river or were shot dead while fleeing Boko Haram gunmen who raided a remote village in Nigeria's north-eastern Yobe state, locals said yesterday.

Dozens of militants arrived on motorcycles and a car on Thursday last week and opened fire, scattering terrified residents of Kukuwa-Gari.

A local government official confirmed the attack but put the death toll much lower, at around 50.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

DNA tool to track down errant dog owners

MADRID • The Spanish city of Tarragona plans to use DNA analysis of dog droppings to track down errant owners who fail to clear up their pets' mess, local officials said.

The city of some 135,000 people will work with a local university to create a DNA database of registered dogs that could be used to identify their owners.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE