Freight is easing, so European refiners are looking at alternatives, one crude trader said.

I think that there are already some barrels coming out of storage as the market structure is not so favourable to keep the barrels floating, a trader said.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's Boko Haram extremists are offering to free more than 200 young women and girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in exchange for the release of militant leaders held by the government, a human rights activist has told The Associated Press.

The activist said Boko Haram's current offer is limited to the girls from the school in northeastern Nigeria whose mass abduction in April 2014 ignited worldwide outrage and a campaign to "Bring Back Our Girls" that stretched to the White House.

The new initiative reopens an offer made last year to the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan to release the 219 students in exchange for 16 Boko Haram detainees, the activist said. The man, who was involved in negotiations with Boko Haram last year and is close to current negotiators, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters on this sensitive issue.

"Another window of opportunity opened" in the last few days, according to Fred Eno, who has been negotiating with Boko Haram for more than a year.

He said he could not discuss details but explained that the recent slew of Boko Haram bloodletting — some 350 people killed in the past nine days — is consistent with past ratcheting up of violence as the militants seek a stronger negotiating position.

Presidential adviser Femi Adesina said on Saturday that Nigeria's government "will not be averse" to talks with Boko Haram. "Most wars, however furious or vicious, often end around the negotiation table," he said.

Eno said the 5-week-old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari offers "a clean slate" to bring the militants back to negotiations that had become poisoned by the different security agencies and their advice to Jonathan.

Two months of talks last year led government representatives and Eno to travel in September to a northeastern town where the prisoner exchange was to take place — only to be stymied by the Department for State Service, the activist said.

At the last minute, the intelligence agency said it was holding only four of the militants sought by Boko Haram, he said.

It is not known how many Boko Haram suspects are detained by Nigeria's intelligence agency, whose chief Buhari fired last week.

The activist said the agency continues to hold suspects illegally because it does not have enough evidence for a conviction, and any court would free them. Nigerian law requires charges be brought after 48 hours.

Thousands of suspects have died in custody, and they might include some on a list from Boko Haram that Eno said he first received exactly one year ago.

Amnesty International alleges that 8,000 detainees have died in military custody — some have been shot, some have died from untreated injuries due to torture, and some have died from starvation and other harsh treatment.

In May, about 300 women, girls and children being held captive by Boko Haram were rescued by Nigeria's military, but none were from Chibok. It is believed the militants view the Chibok girls as a last-resort bargaining chip.

In that infamous abduction, 274 mostly Christian girls preparing to write science exams were seized from the school by Islamic militants in the early hours of April 15, 2014. Dozens escaped on their own in the first few days, but 219 remain missing.

Boko Haram has not shown them since a May 2014 video in which its leader, Abubakar Shekau, warned: "You won't see the girls again unless you release our brothers you have captured."

In the video, nearly 100 of the girls, who have been identified by their parents, were shown wearing Islamic hijab and reciting the Quran. One of them said they had converted to Islam.

International indignation at Nigeria's failure to rescue the girls was joined by U.S. first lady Michelle Obama. In a radio address in May 2014, she said she and President Barack Obama are "outraged and heartbroken" over the abduction.

Supporters of the girls, who continue to rally each day under the "Bring Back Our Girls" banner, on Wednesday marched to the presidential villa in Abuja to renew demands that the government bring the students home.

There have been unconfirmed reports that some of the girls have been taken to neighboring countries, and that some have been radicalized and trained as fighters. At least three were reported to have died — one from dysentery, one from malaria and one from a snake bite.

Last year, Shekau said the girls were an "old story," and that he had married them off to his fighters.

Lawan Zanna, whose daughter is among the captives, said this week that 14 Chibok parents have died since the mass kidnapping, many from stress-related illnesses blamed on the ordeal.

Some of the Chibok girls who managed to escape have been rejected by their community and now live with family friends, tired of hearing taunts like "Boko Haram wives."

The assumption that all girls and women held by the group have been raped is a difficult stigma to overcome in Nigeria's highly religious and conservative society.

Shekau had threatened in 2013 to kidnap women and girls if Nigeria's military did not release detained Boko Haram wives and children. The government freed them in May of that year, as a goodwill gesture ahead of peace talks, which failed.

Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds more — girls, boys, women and young men. Some have become sex slaves, while others are used as fighters, according to former captives.

Nigerian opinion on negotiating with the extremists is mixed. Some say the group's crimes are too heinous to be forgiven: The 6-year-old Islamic uprising has killed more than 13,000 people and forced about 1.5 million from their homes.

"A lot of people take a hard-line stance that you must never negotiate with a terrorist," said Sen. Chris Anyanwu. She called it a "very complex" issue, balancing the lives of more than 200 girls against the dangers of freeing extremists.

The militants last year seized a large swath of northeast Nigeria and declared an Islamic caliphate. Nigeria and its neighbors deployed a multinational army that forced them out of towns and villages this year, but the bloodshed has risen at a fierce rate since Buhari's May 29 inauguration amid pledges to crush the insurgency.

Eno said that as the president pursues a necessary military solution, he hopes Buhari also understands the need for negotiation.

He said the latest overture comes through respected Islamic scholars and Muslim elders who were ignored by Jonathan's people but now have taken dangerous and courageous steps to engage the insurgents.

The allegations are false and socially irresponsible during a time when many Americans are celebrating equality, he added, referring to America’s fantastic recently ruling to make same-sex marriage LEGAL in all states.

Smh. The devil is working hard today. Lol.

The defendant is declared guilty and sentenced to life in prison, presiding judge Hariono said in his verdict as quoted by Antara news wire.

We accept the sentence, he said through his interpreter.

We have seven days to decide whether to accept or appeal against the verdict, one of prosecutors from the Depok Prosecutors Office Edy Azis said.

Months after the 2015 elections ended, Nigerian youths are still hung up on those elections. Nowhere is this more obvious than on social media which our youths have turned to a battle ground divided into pro People Democratic Party (PDP) and pro All Progressives Congress (APC) youths. So ingrained is this animosity that each group targets elected officials and party chieftains of the opposing parties and go after them just on the basis of their party affiliation. Things reached a comical stage when a youth attacked me for a tweet on Twitter and hours later was praising a popular youth for his tweet. Unbeknownst to him was the fact that the youth had merely tweeted my exact words but had not credited me with the quote!

These shenanigans makes me concerned for our youth. Where they should be getting closer and breaking down barriers, they are holding a candle for politicians who in reality are not as divided as they lead these youths to believe.

For instance, Senator Bukola Saraki is the Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly today. He could not have been elevated to that exalted seat were it not for the votes of senators of the PDP. What does that teach us? It teaches us that all politicians are divided by a common interest which united them when the conditions are right and temporarily divides them when they are wrong.

I advise youths not to look at Nigeria from a pro PDP or APC perspective. They should see the country from a pro youth outlook. Their future is greater than a party. Nigerian youths should not believe and act as if the only options available to them are either the PDP or the APC. There is a third alternative.

This third alternative is patriotism.

I am reminded of the wise words of Mark Twain who defined patriotism as “loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it”. Our youths have to imbibe this wisdom from Mark Twain and refrain from saying and tweeting nasty stuff about each other and their religions, regions, tribes and ethnicities.

Those who engage in this do not understand that foreigners follow Twitter trends and when our youths are disrespecting each other’s ethnicities and religions, they must realise that foreigners do not see us as Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. They just see us as Nigerians. I therefore advise our youths and indeed all Nigerians to speak of Nigeria in a way that shows the world that we value her. If we put a small price on Nigeria, we should be rest assured that the world will not raise that price.
We should not come on social media to abuse one another on partisan grounds. That to me is an abuse of the platform.

I am sure Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, who founded Twitter, did not found it as a platform where we come to outdo each other in raining insults on those on the opposite political divide from us. Speaking for myself, I am on Twitter to release my ideas for scrutiny and receive ideas of other Twitter users for contemplation, because none of us is as smart as all of us.

Our youths need to understand that we are living in an idea age not an insult age. It takes interdependence and interconnection to create the atmosphere that inspires brilliant ideas. Our youths are short circuiting this interconnection when they alienate each other.

And I am aghast as to what to say to those elders who come on Twitter and fan the embers of division amongst our youths by retweeting them when they retweet insults and destructive criticism against their political opponents. Even worse is when they praise them by calling them intelligent for engaging in this behaviour.

We really need to watch it. Nigerian youths are beginning to define intelligence as the ability to come up with the most sophisticated insult and criticism. We urgently need to redefine intelligence in Nigeria. Mudslinging, cynicism and criticism are not acts of intelligence. Ideas and creativity are. If you are truly intelligent, you won’t be on Twitter lobbing insults on political opponents. Instead you will be tweeting ideas that inspire solutions to Nigeria’s challenges!

I want to urge these elders, who I have come to be aware are called Twitter overlords, to remember that true elders plant trees of peace even though they know they may never benefit from the shades of those trees.

President Barack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton are some of the most criticised political figures in the world, but they do not use social media to react to the criticism they receive. Instead, conscious of the fact that their role is to set good moral standards for the youths, they constantly tweet uplifting and inspiring tweets which have the capacity to unite people. That is what we should do as elders in Nigeria. If we do not do this, we should consider that a time may come when those attack dogs have savaged all our enemies, and having nothing else to savage they may turn on us.

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce

for fulfilling your plans in my life.

Thank you God for fulfilling Your plans in my life…. All the Glory belongs to You!!!!

HistoRIH!!!! First and only!!! God is great!!!

At that time, I trusted him, I said to myself he was a nice man, he was caring and very kind.” At the time, she had no one who was emotionally supporting her and she would look forward to going to church, she said.

Today my mum is 64. My beautiful mother with a heart of gold, soft spoken. The best mother in the world!!!! I love you Mrs Nnoyelum and like your name you will stay a long time so you can enjoy me well well.

After I did my video, a friend of mine told me the dance I did in the video (Yobo dance) was trending on Instagram by Olamide. And my friend told me he had already told someone who is in Olamide’s crew about the dance. I released the audio version of my own song on 22nd April, 2015, and Olamide released his own song on 2nd May.

During that time, I was working on my viral video which I released on 6th May. It wasn’t up to 24 hours after that, I saw Shakiti Bobo, I was like, what’s going on; why is this happening at this particular time.

I’m not here to point fingers that someone stole my dance moves, but I feel it’s not cool for you to do something that you knew about from someone else, and pick it up as your own” LT added.