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Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan sacks military chiefs

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has sacked his military high command, his spokesman Reuben Abati has said.

No reason was given but the dismissals come amid growing concern about the military’s failure to end the Islamist-led insurgency in northern Nigeria.

Mr Abati said Air Marshal Alex Badeh replaces Admiral Ola Ibrahim as the new chief of defence staff, the most senior post in the military.

Boko Haram has been waging a four-year insurgency in Nigeria.

Mr Jonathan imposed a state of emergency in three northern states in May 2013, giving the military wide-ranging powers to end the insurgency.

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UN invites Iran to Syria peace talks

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has invited Iran to take part in preliminary Syrian peace talks this week in Switzerland, an offer Tehran has accepted.

Mr Ban said he had received assurances that Iran would play a positive role in securing a transitional government.

But Syria’s main opposition group said it would withdraw from the talks unless Mr Ban retracted the offer to Iran.

And the US said the offer must be conditional on Iran’s support for the 2012 deal on Syria’s transition.

The Syria peace conference has been more than a year in the making and now it is in disarray before it has even started, reports the BBC’s Kim Ghattas.

The UN move appeared to take American officials by surprise, she adds.

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Credit card details on 20 million South Koreans stolen

Credit card details from almost half of all South Koreans have been stolen and sold to marketing firms.

The data was stolen by a computer contractor working for a company called the Korea Credit Bureau that produces credit scores.

The names, social security numbers and credit card details of 20 million South Koreans were copied by the IT worker.

The scale of the theft became apparent after the contractor at the centre of the breach was arrested.

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US base move to Okinawa

Japan’s government says the relocation of a US military base on Okinawa island will proceed despite the re-election of a city mayor opposed to the plan.

Tokyo and Washington want to close Futenma airbase and build a new one in Henoko, in Nago city.

But Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine, who won a local election on Sunday, has vowed to block construction at the new site.

Okinawa is home to around 26,000 US troops. Many residents associate the US bases with accidents and crime.

The US and Japan first agreed to shift the Futenma Air Station from a highly-congested part of Okinawa to Nago, in the north of the island, in 1996, but the plan has been stalled amid considerable local opposition to the move.

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Afghan Taliban launch attack on Nato base in Kandahar

Nato officials in Afghanistan say one of their soldiers was killed when insurgents attacked a base in the southern province of Kandahar.

The attackers detonated a car bomb at the entrance to the Zhari base south of Kandahar city, before other militants opened fire.

Officials say nine gunmen took part in the attack – Nato said all were killed.

Nato-led combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014 after 13 years fighting the Taliban.

Last week, a Taliban spokesman told the BBC the militants are “confident of victory” over Nato-led forces and already control large areas of the country.

Presidential elections are due in April, which the Taliban say are a “fake process”.