Apple’s logo on the side of its flagship retail store in San Francisco, California, on May 15, 2013. (REUTERS/Robert Galbraith)

Apple is holding overseas some USD 102 billion of its USD 145 billion in cash, and an Irish subsidiary that earned USD 22 billion in 2011 paid only USD 10 million in taxes, according to the report issued Monday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The strategies Apple uses are legal, and many other multinational corporations use similar tax techniques to avoid paying US income taxes on profits they reap overseas. But the report found that Apple uses a unique twist, and lawmakers are raising questions about loopholes in the US tax code.

While Apple claims to be the biggest US corporate taxpayer, it is also “among America’s largest tax avoiders,” said Sen. John McCain, the panel’s senior Republican.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, the company’s chief financial officer, and its tax chief are scheduled to testify and explain the company’s tax strategy Tuesday at a subcommittee hearing. Apple spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The spotlight on Apple’s tax strategy comes at a time of fevered debate in Washington over whether and how to raise revenues to help reduce the federal deficit. Many Democrats say the government is missing out on collecting billions because companies are stashing profits abroad and avoiding taxes. Republicans want to cut the corporate tax rate of 35% and ease the tax burden on money that US companies make abroad, saying the move would encourage companies to invest at home.

The subcommittee’s members could hold up Apple as an example of a powerful company using its privileged position to avoid taxes while ordinary Americans must pay them. The subcommittee last year derided executives from other technology giants over similar allegations.

Apple refuted the subcommittee’s assertions in testimony prepared for Tuesday’s hearing and released to the public Monday evening. Apple said it pays “an extraordinary amount” in US taxes, citing the roughly USD 6 billion it paid in fiscal 2012.

“Apple does not use tax gimmicks,” the statement says.

Apple has made clear that given current US tax rates, it has no intention of repatriating its overseas profits to the US.

The report estimates that Apple avoided at least USD 3.5 billion in US federal taxes in 2011 and USD 9 billion in 2012 by using the strategy. The company, based in California, paid USD 2.5 billion in federal taxes in 2011 and USD 6 billion in 2012.

The subcommittee also has examined the tax strategies of Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and other multinational companies, finding that they too have avoided billions in US taxes by shifting profits offshore and exploiting weak, ambiguous sections of the tax code. It also states that Microsoft has used “aggressive” transactions to shift assets to subsidiaries in Puerto Rico, Ireland and Singapore, in part to avoid taxes. HP has used complex offshore loan transactions worth billions while using the money to run its US operations, according to the panel.

Apple uses five companies located in Ireland to carry out its tax strategy, according to the report. The companies are located at the same address in Cork, Ireland, and they share members of their boards of directors. While all five companies were incorporated in Ireland, only two also have tax residency in that country. That means the other three are not legally required to pay taxes in Ireland because they are not managed or controlled in that country, in Apple’s view.

The report says Apple capitalizes on a difference between US and Irish rules regarding tax residency. In Ireland, a company must be managed and controlled in the country to be a tax resident. Under US law, a company is a tax resident of the country in which it was established. Therefore, the Apple companies are neither tax residents of Ireland nor of the US, since they were nt incorporated in the US, in Apple’s view.

The subcommittee said Apple’s strategy of not declaring tax residency in any country could be unique among corporations.

“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven,” Sen. Carl Levin, the subcommittee’s chairman, said in a statement. “Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere.”

The subcommittee report also noted that Apple has been setting aside billions for tax bills it may never pay. As previously reported by The Associated Press, the overlooked asset that Apple has been building up could boost its profits by as much as USD 10.5 billion. However, Apple has been lobbying to change US law so it can erase its tax liabilities in a less conspicuous fashion.

In its second quarter ended March 31, Apple posted its first profit decline in 10 years. Net income was USD 9.5 billion, or USD 10.09 a share, down 18% from USD 11.6 billion, or USD 12.30 a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue increased 11%, to USD 43.6 billion.

Apple said in April that it will distribute USD 100 billion in cash to its shareholders by the end of 2015. The company is expanding its share buyback program to USD 60 billion, the largest buyback authorization in history, and is raising its quarterly dividend by 15%, to USD 3.05 a share.

In Monday’s regular trading session, Apple’s stock rose USD 9.67, or 2.23%, to close at USD 442.93.

President Barack Obama has proposed using the tax code to encourage companies to move jobs back to the US and discourage them from shifting jobs abroad. Many in both top political parties say they want to overhaul the entire tax code, but there are vast differences in how they would do so.

People walk near destroyed buildings and vehicles after a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City, May 20, 2013. (REUTERS/Gene Blevins)

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore after the deadliest US tornado since one killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.

Emergency crews were desperately searching the wreckage of Plaza Towers Elementary School that took a direct hit from the tornado on Monday afternoon, Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb told CNN.

There was an outpouring of grief on the school’s Facebook page, with messages from around the country including one pleading simply: “Please find those little children.”

Another elementary school, homes and a hospital were among the buildings leveled, leaving residents of the town of about 50,000 people stunned at the devastation and loss of life.

The Oklahoma medical examiner said 20 of the 91 expected to have been killed were children. The office had already confirmed 51 dead and had been told by emergency services to expect 40 more bodies found in the debris, but had not yet received them.

At least 60 of the 240 people injured were children, area hospitals said.

“We thought we died because we were inside the cellar door … It ripped open the door and just glass and debris started slamming on us and we thought we were dead to be honest,” Ricky Stover said while surveying the devastated remains of his home.

Moore was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights out, houses destroyed and vehicles tossed about as if they were toys.

Rescuers were searching for survivors throughout the swath of devastation into the early hours of Tuesday, while the dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states with more twisters. Severe weather was expected through the night from the Great Lakes south to Texas.

SPEAKING OUTSIDE Norman Regional Hospital, Ninia Lay said she huddled in a closet through two storm alerts and the tornado hit on the third.

“I was hiding in the closet and I heard something like a train coming,” she said under skies still flashing with lightning. The house was flattened and Lay was buried in the rubble for two hours until her husband Kevin, 50, and rescuers dug her out.

“I thank God for my cell phone; I called me husband for help.”

Her daughter Catherine, seven, a first-grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School, took shelter with classmates and teachers in a bathroom when the tornado hit and destroyed the school. She escaped with scrapes and cuts.

The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which is the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.

Witnesses said Monday’s tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5, meaning it had winds over 200 mph.

The 1999 event in Oklahoma ranks as the third-costliest tornado in US history, having caused more than USD 1 billion in damage at the time, or more than USD 1.3 billion in today’s dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE Storm Prediction Center provided the town with a warning 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m., which is greater than the average eight to 10 minutes of warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The notice was upgraded to emergency warning with “heightened language” at 2:56 p.m., or five minutes before the tornado touched down, Pirtle said.

Television media measured the tornado at more than 2 miles wide, with images showing entire neighborhoods flattened.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a temporary flight restriction that allowed only relief aircraft in the area, saying it was at the request of police who needed quiet to search for buried survivors.

Oklahoma activated the National Guard, and the US Federal Emergency Management Agency activated teams to support recovery operations and coordinate responses for multiple agencies.

Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm’s path, was all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been peeled away, giving clear views into the building; while in other areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.

Across the street, people picked through the remains of their homes.

The number of injured as reported by several hospitals rose rapidly throughout the afternoon.

Oklahoma University Medical Center alone was treating 65 patients, 45 of them children, though it was no longer expecting a further mass influx of casualties, spokesman Scott Coppenbarger said.

Moore Medical Center itself sustained significant damage.

“The whole city looks like a debris field,” Glenn Lewis, the mayor of Moore, told NBC.

“It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago and it’s pretty much destroyed,” Lewis said.

The massive twister struck at the height of tornado season, and more were forecast. On Sunday, tornadoes killed two people and injured 39 in Oklahoma.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro (Left) speaks to his Foreign minister Elias Jaua (Right) and Cuban Foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez (Centre) prior to laying a wreath in front Cuban national hero Jose Marti’s sculpture at the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana, Cuba, 27 April 2013. Source: EPA/Alejandro Ernesto

Caracas, Reuters—Venezuela’s recent designation of an acting head of its diplomatic mission in the United States shows the OPEC nation’s desire to restore full diplomatic relations, the foreign minister said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Disputes between Caracas and Washington were common during the 14-year-rule of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, leaving both nations without ambassadors in each other’s capitals.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua suggested in a televised interview that the move to name government ally Calixto Ortega as charge d’affaires in Washington could be a prelude to restoring ambassadors.

“This is a message for US politicians so they understand Venezuela’s desire to normalize relations … via the designation of the highest diplomatic authorities,” he said. “Why? Because the United States remains our top trade partner.”

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has in recent months said he wants better ties with Washington as long as the relationship is respectful. But he has also accused the United States of seeking to destabilize the country.

Last month, he slammed the United States for “vulgar” meddling after the State Department said it had not decided if it would recognize his presidency and supported opposition calls for a vote recount after the April 14 election.

He won that vote, triggered by Chavez’s death, by 1.5 percentage points. The opposition refused to accept the results and is challenging the election in the country’s top court.

In 2008, Chavez expelled US Ambassador Patrick Duddy from Caracas in a dispute over what the late president called Washington’s involvement in violent protests in Bolivia.

In 2010, he blocked Washington’s nomination of diplomat Larry Palmer as ambassador in protest of Palmer’s comments that there were “clear ties” between members of Chavez’s government and leftist Colombian rebels.

The State Department responded by revoking the visa of Venezuela’s ambassador.

Afghan policemen stand at the site of a suicide bombing in front of the provincial council building in the city of Pul-e-Khumri, capital of northern Baghlan Province on May 20, 2013. Source: AFP Photo/Sher Mohammad Jahesh

Baghlan provincial council leader Mohammad Rasoul Mohseni was entering the compound in the morning when the bomber ran up on foot and detonated his explosives, police spokesman in Baghlan province Jawed Bashrat said.

Provincial chief of police Asadullah Sherzad said 14 people were killed, including Mohseni, and 11 were wounded.

Mohammad Zahier Ghanizada, a member of parliament from Baghlan, confirmed the council chief’s death and added that Mohseni had previously received multiple death threats.

Also killed in the attack were six police bodyguards and seven civilians, Sherzad said.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed in a text message to journalists that an insurgent operative carried out the targeted bombing.

“Today at 11 a.m. in front of the Baghlan provincial council office, we have carried out a suicide attack and killed the head of the council,” it said.

Seeking to weaken the Afghan government, the main Taliban insurgents have been carrying out attacks and assassinations intended to intimidate both officials and civilians ahead of next year’s withdrawal of most international troops.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing Monday.

“Such attacks are against all human rights and the principles of Islam,” Karzai said in a statement. “Perpetrators of such attacks are enemies of the Afghan nation and the puppets of foreigners.”

Karzai left later Monday for a two-day state visit to India, where he is expected to request military aid.

Both Karzai and the US have sought peace talks with the Taliban and other insurgent factions in preparation for most foreign troops leaving next year after more than 12 years of war, but the efforts have borne little fruit. The Taliban seek to re-establish the strict interpretation of Islamic law they imposed for five years before being ousted in the 2001 US-led invasion over its sheltering of al-Qaida’s terrorist leadership.

The insurgents last month launched a fierce new spring offensive that has in the past week alone seen the police chief of Farah province gunned down outside his home and twin bombings that killed nine people in an elite gated community for government officials and business owners outside of the southern city of Kandahar. Two bombs also exploded outside the provincial governor’s office in Nangarhar province last week, killing one police guard.

Insurgents have also targeted members of the international coalition. A roadside bomb killed four American soldiers last week in the country’s south, while another insurgent faction, Hizb-e-Islami, targeted a coalition convoy in the capital of Kabul two days later, killing two US soldiers and four American contractors who were training Afghan troops to take over security.

Nigerian Soldiers stand during a parade in Baga village on the outskirts of Maiduguri, in the north-eastern state of Borno May 13, 2013 (REUTERS/Tim Cocks)

President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, had been accused of not taking seriously enough the violence in the largely Muslim north where some fear Islamist insurgents allied to Al-Qaeda could take over large swathes of territory as they did in Mali before French-led troops ejected them this year.

Jonathan has since won plaudits from some quarters for taking a decisive stance on the insurgency, which has destabilized Africa’s second biggest economy but has largely taken place in remote areas far away from major economic centers like Lagos, the capital Abuja and major oilfields in the south.

A spokesman for Defense Headquarters said the military had seized stockpiles of weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, guns and ammunition from areas around Maiduguri, the main city in the northeast.

“The Special Forces have apprehended 65 persons confirmed to be terrorists as they made an attempt to infiltrate Maiduguri while fleeing from various camps now under attack,” Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade said in a statement.

He added that in the Gamburu ward of Maiduguri, where the Boko Haram uprising began, “a total of 10 suspected terrorists were confirmed dead.”

“The area is being combed to fish out any of the surviving insurgents,” he said.

The military said it had imposed a 24-hour curfew over large parts of Maiduguri—an older curfew had only applied at night.

The operation against the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram began after President Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

Nigerian forces used jets and attack helicopters to bombard militant camps in the northeast on Friday, their biggest offensive since Boko Haram began an insurgency almost four years ago to try to create a breakaway Islamist state.

Nigerian forces are trying to regain territory controlled by well-armed militants in remote semi-deserts in the area around Lake Chad, along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

But the United States and human rights groups have raised concerns about the Nigerian military’s heavy handed approach, which they say has led to hundreds of civilian deaths.

The military said on Friday it had destroyed a number of camps in dry forests around Borno state, the epicenter of the insurgency and a region that once hosted one of West Africa’s oldest medieval Islamic empires prospering from trade routes linking its interior with the Mediterranean cost.

After being pushed out of city centers, the Islamists had been re-arming this year, drawing on weapons still flooding into the West Africa region in the aftermath of Libya’s conflict.

An attack on the town of Bama by 200 Boko Haram militants armed with anti-aircraft guns this month killed 55 people.

The move has proved popular with Nigerians keen for one of its most violent episodes since the 1967-70 Biafran war to end.

“The action by the presidency was timely. Our state is being turned into a cemetery by these terrorists,” Kwamoti Laori, a barrister and deputy speaker of Adamawa state’s legislature, told Reuters.

But it remains to be seen whether the military can crush an insurgency that has proved adept at melting away under pressure and then resurfacing when the heat is off.

Nigerian authorities thought Boko Haram was finished after a 2009 crackdown left 800 people dead, including the sect’s founder, a cleric called Mohammed Yusuf. Instead, it transformed into something much more deadly, developing sophisticated bomb technology and linking up with Al-Qaeda’s north African wing.

The military is already overstretched in the north, by operations against oil theft in the south and by missions abroad.

A view of a hospital in Karachi where the body of Zahra Shahid Hussain, a senior female politician from cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party was moved to, in this still image taken from video footage, May 18, 2013. Source: Reuters

Islamabad, Reuters—Gunmen killed a senior female politician from a reformist party in Pakistan on Saturday night, the latest violent incident in a bloody election campaign and one that set off a war of words between two major opposition parties.

Around 150 people were killed in the run-up to national elections held last week, which handed a landslide victory to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N party.

It marked the first time an elected government replaced another one in a nation that has been run by military leaders for more than half its history.

Results from a handful of constituencies are still awaited amid accusations of vote-rigging. The shooting came hours ahead of repolling in a key area beset by allegations of voting fraud.

It was not immediately clear who killed Zara Shahid Hussain, a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. The PTI has promised to reduce endemic corruption in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people.

The PTI’s leader, former international cricket star Imran Khan, immediately blamed the killing on the Muttahida Quami Movement. The MQM has a stranglehold on politics in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi.

“Her death has sent shockwaves across the rank and file of the party,” Khan said in a statement.

Police said that two gunmen shot Hussain dead outside her home in an upscale neighborhood of Karachi, he said.

“I hold (MQM leader) Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts,” he added in a tweet.

“I also hold the British government responsible as I had warned them about British citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threats.”

MQM leader Hussain is wanted on murder charges in Pakistan and leads his party remotely from exile in England. His party is designated a terrorist organization by Canada, a charge it strongly denies.

In recent days he gave a speech which many Pakistanis felt was an incitement to attack political rivals. The British police have been flooded with complaints demanding an investigation.

The MQM leader insisted his words were taken out of context. MQM leaders held a press conference within hours of Hussain’s death to disclaim responsibility and demand a retraction from Khan.

Khan’s election campaign electrified many Pakistanis, pushing the PTI from a marginal party with no seats in the legislature to become Pakistan’s third largest party.

National polls held a week ago gave the MQM 18 out of 19 national assembly seats in its power base in Karachi. Repolling is due to be held Sunday in the final constituency, thought to be a stronghold of PTI, after many polling stations failed to open on election day.

The steamy port city of Karachi is Pakistan’s financial heart and home to 18 million people. It typically sees about a dozen murders a day, a deadly combination of political killings, attacks by Taliban and sectarian militant groups, and street crime.

A member of Italy’s metalworkers union Fiom looks at a banner during a demonstration in Rome, May 18, 2013. (REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini)

“We hope that this government will finally start listening to us because we are losing our patience,” said Enzo Bernardis, who joined the sea of protesters waving red flags and calling for more workers’ rights and better contracts.

Less than a month in power, Letta is trying to hold together an uneasy coalition between his center-left Democratic party and the center-right People of Freedom, led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Confidence in the government, cobbled together after inconclusive elections, is already falling, with one poll on Friday by the SWG institute showing its approval rating had dropped to 34 percent from 43 percent at the start of the month.

“We can’t wait anymore” and “We need money to live” were among slogans on banners held up by the crowds.

Letta promised to make jobs his top priority when he came to power in April after two months of political deadlock. But several protesters complained he was not sticking to his vow, focusing instead on a property tax reform outlined this week.

Union leaders said he needed to shift away from the austerity agenda pursued by former Prime Minister Mario Monti, who introduced a range of spending cuts, tax hikes and pension reform to shore up strained public finances.

“We need to start over with more investment. If we don’t restart with public and private investments, there will no new jobs,” said Maurizio Landini, secretary-general of the left-wing metalworkers union Fiom.

Italy is stuck in its longest recession since quarterly records began in 1970, and jobless rates are close to record highs, with youth unemployment at around 38 percent.

Other protesters were pessimistic that Letta’s fragile government would be able to take effective action.

“This government will last a very short time,” said demonstrator Marco Silvani. What we need is a new leftist party that fights for the rights of the people,” he said.

A South Korean man watches a TV news reporting missile launch conducted by North Korea, at a Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, May 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Launches by the North of short-term missiles are not uncommon, but the ministry would not speculate whether these latest launches were part of a test or training exercise.

“North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off its east coast,” an official at the South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman’s office said by telephone.

The official said he would not speculate on whether the missiles were fired as part of a drill or training exercise.

“In case of any provocation, the ministry will keep monitoring the situation and remain on alert,” he said.

A Japanese government source, quoted by Kyodo news agency, noted the three launches, but said none of the missiles landed in Japan’s territorial waters.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month after running high for several weeks following the imposition of tougher U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February.

The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States.

North Korea conducts regular launches of its Scud short-range missiles, which can hit targets in South Korea.

It conducted a successful launch of a long-range missile last December, saying it put a weather satellite into orbit. The United States and its allies denounced the launch as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead.

During the weeks of high tension, South Korea reported that the North had moved missile launchers into place on its east coast for a possible launch of a medium-range Musudan missile. The Musudan has a range of 3,500 km, putting Japan in range and possibly the U.S. South Pacific island of Guam.

File picture showing former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla waving after Argentine U-20 soccer team won the 1979 World Cup in Japan. (AFP PHOTO/TELAM)

Federal Prison Service Director Victor Hortel said he died of natural causes in the Marcos Paz prison.

Videla ran one of the bloodiest military governments in an era of South American dictatorships, and sought to take full responsibility for kidnappings, tortures, deaths and disappearances when he was tried again and again for those crimes in recent years. He said he knew about everything that happened under his rule because “I was on top of everyone.”

Videla had a low profile before the March 24, 1976, coup, but quickly became the architect of a repressive system that killed about 9,000 people according to an official accounting after democracy returned to Argentina in 1983. Human rights activists believe the real number was as high as 30,000.

This “dirty war” introduced two frightening terms to the global lexicon of terror: “disappeareds” – people kidnapped and never seen or heard from again – and “death flights,” in which political prisoners were thrown, drugged but alive, from navy planes into the sea.

“The disappeareds aren’t there, they don’t exist,” Videla told a news conference in 1977, when the complaints of families looking for their missing loved ones were raising concern internationally.

Videla’s dictatorship also stood out from others in Latin America for its policy of holding pregnant prisoners until they gave birth, and then killing the women and arranging for illegal adoptions of their babies, usually by military or police families. This happened hundreds of times, and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo rights group has relentlessly sought to reunite these children, now in their 30s, with their biological families. Last year, Videla was convicted and sentenced again to life without parole for the thefts of these babies.

Nigerian soldiers fire rifles on a shooting range in Bauchi, Nigeria, 15 May 2013. (EPA/DEJI YAKE)

Lagos Reuters—Nigerian forces used jets and attack helicopters to bombard Islamist militant camps in the northeast on Friday, killing a number of insurgents, the defence headquarters spokesman said.

Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade told Reuters by telephone several camps had been attacked, including in the Sambisa game reserve in Borno state, but did not have further details.

“A number of insurgents have been killed. It is not just Sambisa, every camp is under attack. But we have not done the mopping up operations on the ground to determine the numbers killed,” Olukolade said.

Nigerian forces are trying to regain territory controlled by increasingly well-armed Boko Haram Islamist insurgents in their northeastern stronghold states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which were put under a state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday.

Boko Haram, other Islamist militant groups such as al-Qaeda linked Ansaru and associated criminal gangs have become the biggest threat to stability in Africa’s top oil producer.

Thousands have been killed since Boko Haram launched an uprising almost four years ago in an effort to create an Islamic state in a country of about 170 million split roughly equally between Christians, who are the majority in the south, and Muslims, who predominate in the north.

Violence has mostly happened far from the commercial hub Lagos or political capital Abuja and hundreds of miles away from oilfields in the southeast.