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• U.S., Egypt in Showdown Over NGO Worker Trials
  

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  Nineteen Americans working for non-governmental organizations in Egypt could face prosecution by the country's military rulers. Hari Sreenivasan discusses how a trial could potentially jeopardize U.S. aid to Egypt with The Wall Street Journal's Matt Bradley, reporting from Cairo.

  RAY SUAREZ: Finally tonight, Egypt's military rulers and the U.S. head for a showdown over Egypt's threat to bring to trial 19 Americans and 24 others working for non-government groups.

  Among those being held, Sam LaHood, the son of U.S. transportation secretary, Ray LaHood. The Obama administration has threatened to cut off nearly $2 billion in military aid if Egypt goes ahead with a trial.

  Hari Sreenivasan talked with Matt Bradley of The Wall Street Journal in Cairo earlier today.

  HARI SREENIVASAN: Matt, thanks for joining us.

  Exactly what are the charges that these Americans and others are being held on?

  MATT BRADLEY, The Wall Street Journal: Well, the 43 people who are being charged are facing charges of establishing an illegal organization and accepting and distributing funds illegally without the approval of the Egyptian government.

  And those charges, if convicted, they could get a penalty, a financial penalty, or they could get about five years in prison.

  HARI SREENIVASAN: And so this isn't just a threat of deportation that these individuals are facing, right?

  MATT BRADLEY: Well, it could be that.

  And it seems very unrealistic that the government, that the Egyptian government would want to put these people away in jail for several years. But anything is possible at this point.

  HARI SREENIVASAN: So, why exactly is the Egyptian government in its current form doing this? Is there a strategic advantage? What are you hearing?

  MATT BRADLEY: Well, it's very, very difficult to discern exactly why the Egyptian government would want to do something like this.

  The Egyptian government, of course, says that this is a judicial investigation and that, once it hits the judiciary, there's nothing they really can do to stop it, no matter what kind of diplomatic channels the United States tries to use.

  However, a lot of people in the NGO community, in the activist community, they say that this is an obviously politicized case and that it started in the government, maybe they're not as in control of it now as they used to be, but they instigated the case against these NGOs, and that they're doing this in order to basically deflect blame on some of the violence and continuing protests that have been going on here in Cairo since the revolution last year on to foreign hands.

  So the Egyptian government knows very well that the public will lap up any conspiracy theories that involve foreign hands trying to destabilize Egypt for whatever reason. And so that's one of the things that we have been hearing again and again.

  Every time there's murder or killing in the square where Egyptian forces, the military or the police try to suppress angry dissidents, they say that this violence is not caused by Egyptians opposing the regime. They say it's caused by foreign hands trying to infiltrate these protest movements and turning them against the Egyptian regime in order to destroy the economy, in order to create chaos, though it's not quite clear what the political motive is behind that and to what political end that would meet.

  HARI SREENIVASAN: So what about the rhetoric from the United States? Everyone from President Obama to Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Clinton, has tried to turn up the heat a bit and tried to say that this could impact the larger amount of foreign aid that we give to Egypt. Is that resonating at all?

  MATT BRADLEY: Well, for one thing, let's be clear. The Egyptian public is not really talking about this.

  They were talking about it at the end of December, when the raids on the NGOs occurred, when police, backed by the military with prosecutors, went into these NGOs, investigated, took a lot of documents and cash and sealed up the offices.

  But since then, there hasn't really been a lot of talk in the media here in Egypt about what's going on. There's been many, many -- much bigger distractions, including some of the street protests that have been going on now.

  But when it comes to what the Egyptian government is saying, they're basically saying that this is not an issue that they can intervene on.

  HARI SREENIVASAN: So, two of the organizations that have U.S. backing, the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, they were actually invited into the country as observers, right?

  MATT BRADLEY: Well, at least in the case of NDI. NDI has been here since 2006. And they applied for an application for registration in 2006, but that process has never really come to fruition.

  And they've called several times the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Social Solidarity, who normally deals with this sort of thing, and they have said, all of your application papers are in order, but we haven't really come to a decision on whether or not to approve you.

  And this is a very similar tactic that the Mubarak regime used, where, if there was sort of an independent satellite station or an international organization that wanted the right to operate here in Egypt, they would allow them to operate openly, but suspend licensing for them, so that they could have a pretext at any moment to shut them down.

  HARI SREENIVASAN: So, where are these individuals now? Are they in custody anywhere? Or are they just in different parts of the city and scattered and waiting for a court date?

  MATT BRADLEY: Well, there are 43 individuals total -- 19 of them are Americans. And 13 of those Americans are not in the country.

  And one of the reasons why is because a lot of these people, they work for organizations like NDI and IRI, and they came and they visited for a couple...
  
  

• How Egypt's Soccer Violence Fits Into its Political Unrest
  

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  New violence erupted Thursday in Cairo after a soccer riot killed scores of fans in Port Said. Ray Suarez and Matt Bradley of The Wall Street Journal explore how the distrust and anger among the country's police, soccer hooligans, political protesters and the military overlap and fit into Egypt's overall "unfinished revolution."

  JEFFREY BROWN: A short time ago, Ray Suarez talked with Wall Street Journal correspondent Matt Bradley in Cairo.

  RAY SUAREZ: Matt Bradley, welcome.

  Has last night's violence in Port Said trailed into the Egyptian capital? What's happening tonight on the streets of Cairo?

  MATT BRADLEY, The Wall Street Journal: Well, we're seeing a pattern emerge.

  This is the third time that we've seen a lot of violence in the past couple of months directed at the police. So, right now, we're seeing a return to the street by mostly angry youths who are very upset with the police and they're somewhat disconnected from the political forces that have been dominating the protests so far in the past year.

  So, it's a little different now, though, because now we have a parliament that's sitting and that's kind of undergirding these demands for justice and for discipline to be taken upon the security forces, the minister of interior, and the prime minister.

  RAY SUAREZ: What's the connection between the violence on the soccer field that started last night and what you're seeing now on the streets of Egyptian cities?

  MATT BRADLEY: Well, essentially, the anger that is overflowing now on to the streets of Cairo comes from the fact that the Ultras, which are essentially what you call football hooligans in Britain or soccer hooligans in the United States, these Ultras feel that the military regime and the police didn't do enough to protect them when the -- when other fans, opposing fans in the northern city of Port Said attacked the opposing bleachers.

  And, of course, we know that 74 people died, at least. And so the fallout and the anger really has to do with the negligence of the security forces and what they didn't do, rather than what they did do.

  RAY SUAREZ: Well, the world has long been familiar, sadly, with violence at soccer stadiums, from Latin America to Africa to Western Europe. But is this somehow different? Does this come with political overtones that perhaps those other incidents don't have?

  MATT BRADLEY: Well, this is different only really in the sense that -- that Egypt is going through a very tumultuous political situation right now.

  So it's not so different from just a regular outpouring of violent rage at a soccer game. Really, that's what it was. That's what we saw on the videos of fans rushing the field. So, it's no different in that sense. But the translation of the deaths and the way that this nation is dealing with this event, that's a dramatically different affair and will be every time there's violence in the streets of Egypt, because it's always going to be connected with the animosity that's displayed by the Egyptian public toward the security forces.

  RAY SUAREZ: If we go back to last year, were those die-hard fans you call the Ultras involved in the uprising against Hosni Mubarak?

  MATT BRADLEY: Yes, they were.

  They were on the front lines of that uprising. But, of course, there were quite a lot of people who were part of that uprising. And so now we're seeing things a little differently in the past few months. Ever since last summer, if you remember, there was a lot of violence in front of the Israeli Embassy.

  And a lot of people were killed. And, eventually, the Israeli ambassador was forced to evacuate the country. The Ultras really started their sort of front-line activism right there. That was when they took such a very prominent role, and they recurringly did that throughout the rest of the summer and into the fall and into the winter, as we're seeing now.

  The clashes in Tahrir Square right before the parliamentary elections, they were on the front lines then. In the middle of the parliamentary elections in December, they played a very prominent role. And all of this has to do with this ongoing vendetta between these Ultras, these football hooligans and the police.

  RAY SUAREZ: What possible interests could the police or the army, which still runs the government, have in allowing something like this to happen? Isn't it all downside for them, if you stoke popular anger by your lack of control, both of the society and of a soccer game?

  MATT BRADLEY: Yes, it doesn't look good for the military. It doesn't look good for the Ministry of Interior, as there are parliamentarians who are now calling for the minister of interior to resign.

  But at the same time, a lot of the protesters, a lot of the activists are saying that this was a deliberate effort by the military regime or by the Ministry of Interior to cause violence. And the reason why they're saying that is because, recently, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who is the de facto president of Egypt, he partially lifted the emergency law.

  And the minister of interior has been in front of parliament saying that the emergency law, which allows the police broad powers to investigate and to detain criminals without charge, that this should be put back. And now a lot of activists are saying that this violence was staged in part to bolster arguments by the government and by members of the former regime that this draconian law enforcement measure needs to be put back into place.

  And at the same time, others are saying that the police simply didn't intervene because they wanted to teach these Ultras, these sort of football hooligans, a lesson. These Ultras have been, as I mentioned earlier, very active on the front lines of anti-military and anti-police protesters throughout the past couple of months.

  So...
  
  

• In Egypt, Deadly Soccer Riot Reignites Protests Against Military Rule
  

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  After a riot at a soccer match killed at least 74 people Wednesday in Port Said, Egypt, new violence erupted Thursday in Cairo with protesters demanding that the country's generals give up power. Jonathan Rugman of Independent Television News reports.

  JEFFREY BROWN: The people of Egypt faced a new crisis today. A bloodbath involving soccer fans sent fresh fighting surging through the streets of Cairo.

  We begin with a report narrated by Jonathan Rugman of Independent Television News.

  JONATHAN RUGMAN: It's a familiar scene from Egypt's unfinished revolution: protesters clashing with security forces tonight on the road to Cairo's Interior Ministry near Tahrir Square.

  Yet, the spark for all this was a riot from which scores of fans have returned home in coffins throughout the day. The home side in Port Said last night should have been celebrating victory. Instead, their fans stormed the pitch. They attacked the visitors' supporters with knives, clubs, stones and even fireworks -- 74 people were killed, fans of Cairo's Al-Ahly club suffocated in stampedes as they tried to escape.

  Even their team was chased from the ground, Egyptian police, for the most part, standing aside, either through deliberate negligence or fear of making a bad situation worse. The result, the players' changing room suddenly converted into a makeshift hospital. The team's Portuguese coach said he was beaten and that he'd seen fans die in front of him, while TV sports presenters were hanging their heads in shock and disbelief.

  A scandalous night for football has reignited angry protests, demanding Egypt's generals give up power.

  MAN (through translator): We were pushed off the high-seated section at the top of the stadium. Those who fell died, and none of the security tried to stop it. I was struck by a knife twice, in my hand and head.

  JONATHAN RUGMAN: The protests began at Cairo's railway station, Egyptians chanting for the military's downfall as trains brought back surviving football fans.

  "My son hasn't answered his phone," said this woman. "He's 18 and from Cairo. Please, I beg you, help me find my son."

  At the stadium itself this morning, the wreckage left by a riot, the seats still smeared with blood. The town's governor's been suspended and the board governing Egyptian soccer has been sacked.

  The usually camera-shy Field Marshal Tantawi, who governs Egypt, turned out to greet a clearly bewildered Cairo side. He's ordered an investigation and claimed that the transition to civilian rule is still on track. But in Egypt's newly elected parliament, M.P.s have lined up to accuse the military of plotting against that transition by permitting last night's violence.

  Whatever the truth, Egypt is once again in turmoil. Its revolution is barely a year old -- last night's violence proof, say protesters, that the army must go, with large demonstrations now planned for tomorrow.

  
  
  
• Nigeria's Poor Youth Might Be 'Vulnerable' to Boko Haram's Call
  

  Residents of the Tsamiyar Boka neighborhood of the northern Nigerian city of Kano. Photo by Aminu Abubakar/AFP/Getty Images.

  Nigerians not only are bracing for further attacks by the hard-line Islamist sect Boko Haram, they're also worried that disenchanted poor youth in the northern city of Kano might be drawn to the radical group.

  GlobalPost's correspondent in Nigeria, Gillian Parker, visited Kano to see how the city was faring after a series of car bombs on Jan. 20 left 185 people dead.

  "People are very resilient. In many countries that are experiencing terrorism, you just have to get on with it," she told us by phone from the capital, Abuja. In Kano, people were walking on the streets or in the markets as usual. "They were just getting on with it, getting back to work."

  Last month, Nigerians protested high fuel prices and a government plan to lift oil subsidies, which it later reversed. Nigeria, the most populous African country with 155 million people, supplies the United States with one-fifth of its oil.

  The strikes and protests left a gap in people's income, Parker said, so "I think they were quite keen to get back to work in Kano and not let the bombs obstruct their daily lives.

  "That said, I think there is a very palpable feeling of fear in the city," she added.

  The Nigerian government is struggling to contain the insurgency. The country's State Security Service said Wednesday it had captured a spokesman for Boko Haram. But news outlets reported that the same agency had made similar claims weeks ago with someone who was only loosely affiliated with the group.

  Some fear the Boko Haram attacks are leading to reprisal killings. After the coordinated bombings in Kano, Nigerian security forces killed two people in what police called an effort to root out members of Boko Haram. Neighbors said those killed were just ordinary civilians.

  Parker said new security measures are in place, including cement barricades around buildings, bomb checks of vehicles at hotels and heightened check-out procedures for children at schools. "People are extremely cautious and they are worried about where this is going to go," she said.

  In Kano, where the gap between the rich and poor is more pronounced than in Abuja, Parker said there are concerns that boys and girls living in the streets will be drawn to Boko Haram and its goal of instilling Sharia law.

  "The youth in the streets in Kano are vulnerable to being brought under Boko Haram's wing," she said. "They're searching for a purpose and a sense of belonging.

  "These are boys who have been on the streets for years, begging. They see the elites with all this money, and they're living in poverty with no hope. It's probably easy for Boko Haram to gain support from them," Parker said. And that leads to concerns that the group might be able to gain a stronghold in Nigeria's second-largest city, she said.

  The government's efforts to clamp down on Boko Haram are hampered by the group's underground tactics and hard-line members' unwillingness to negotiate, said Parker.

  "It's sad for Kano," she added. "Most people are very peaceful. They don't want this in their city."

  The NewsHour has a partnership with the international news website GlobalPost. View all of our World coverage and follow us on Twitter.

  

  
  
  
• News Wrap: Somali Captors Threaten to Kill American Hostage if U.S. Interferes
  

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  In other news Thursday, captors in Somalia threatened to kill an American hostage if the United States attempts to free him. The warning followed a Navy SEAL raid that rescued another American and a Dane. Also, government forces in Syria stormed the town of Douma, detaining at least 200 people, according to activists.

  HARI SREENIVASAN: Pirates in Somalia threatened today to kill an American hostage if the U.S. attempts to free him. The warning followed a Navy SEAL raid that rescued another American and a Dane who had been held since October.

  The latest U.S. captive was abducted on Saturday. His captors said today he's being moved frequently to discourage a new raid. One pirate said, if they try again, "We will all die together."

  In Syria, government forces stormed a town just outside Damascus, and fighting raged with army defectors. It happened in Duma, a flash point suburb of the capital. Troops went house to house, and activists said at least 200 people were detained. In downtown Damascus, only 10 miles away, thousands of pro-government backers flooded the streets in a show of support for President Bashar al-Assad.

  Democrats in the U.S. Senate have blocked a Republican effort to bar President Obama from raising the nation's debt limit. The vote today was largely along party lines. The national debt currently stands at $15.2 trillion. The increase would raise it by another $1.2 trillion. The House voted against the increase last week.

  On Wall Street, stocks fell as lagging home sales undercut an early rally. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 22 points to close at 12,734. The Nasdaq fell 13 points to close at 2,805.

  The Obama administration has released new rules aimed at restoring national forests. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today the goal is to protect woodlands, while creating opportunities for the timber industry. The rules would shorten the average time it takes to develop forest management plans, among other things. The current rules have been in place since 1982. Several attempts at revisions have been thrown out by federal courts.

  The Penn State community paid final respects today to former football coach Joe Paterno. And there were overtones of the scandal that led to his firing last November. More than 12,000 people packed the school's basketball arena for the service.

  A line of speakers, including former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge, lauded the legendary coach.

  TODD BLACKLEDGE, former Penn State quarterback: Joe's success and his impact didn't end Sunday when he died. And it didn't end yesterday, when we all said goodbye to him. It will live on in this place, Penn State, and it will live on in the lives and the hearts of all the people here for many, many years to come.

  HARI SREENIVASAN: The Penn State trustees had dismissed Paterno and said he should've done more about allegations that a former assistant molested children.

  But Paterno's longtime friend Nike chairman Phil Knight defended the coach's response.

  PHIL KNIGHT, Nike: In the year in question, it turns out he gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chain to head of the campus police and the president of the school. Whatever the details of the investigation are, this much is clear to me: If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation, not in Joe Paterno's response to it.

  (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

  HARI SREENIVASAN: Paterno worked at Penn State for more than 60 years. He died Sunday of lung cancer at age 85.

  Those are some of the day's major stories.

  
  
  
• One Year After Revolution's Start, Egypt Still in Unrest
  

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  Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians rallied Wednesday in Tahrir Square, marking the anniversary of the beginning of the 18-day revolution that drove President Hosni Mubarak from office last year. Margaret Warner reports on the country's ongoing political instability.

  GWEN IFILL: Finally tonight, the Egyptian revolution one year later.

  Margaret Warner has the story.

  MARGARET WARNER: Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians flocked to Tahrir Square to mark the onset of the 18-day revolution that drove President Hosni Mubarak from office last year. People waved flags and chanted, but, unlike a year ago, there were no army troops or police present.

  For many, this was a celebration.

  MOHAMED GAMAL EL DIN, Egypt (through translator): I came to celebrate what has been fulfilled from the goals of the revolution. I came to celebrate the downfall of Mubarak and his corrupted people around him. I came to celebrate freedom.

  MARGARET WARNER: But others from the secular forces who sparked the revolution protested today against continued rule by the interim military government.

  MAHER MOHAMED ABD EL HAKIM, Egypt (through translator): This is not the anniversary of the revolution. It hasn't ended yet.

  MARGARET WARNER: In fact, the political divisions were plainly evident, liberal secular Egyptians massing on one side of the square protesting, and Islamists on the other side celebrating.

  For now, it's the Islamists who've won political power. In Egypt's newly elected lower house of parliament, the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood now holds the largest bloc. Along with other Islamist groups, it controls nearly 70 percent of the 508 seats.

  Hangovers from the Mubarak-era past are adding to the tension. A trial is still ongoing for the ailing former president for complicity in the killing of more than 800 protesters last year. Today, some demonstrators said there could be no progress without justice for past wrongs.

  OMNIA SHAKER, Egypt: We want the revenge for the people who died a year ago. And we still didn't get justice or anything. Slow justice is unfair. And the people who died needs the revenge.

  MARGARET WARNER: Amr Moussa, the former Arab League head now hoping to replace Mubarak, said the military needs to loosen its grip more quickly. But he also looked to the future.

  AMR MOUSSA, Egyptian presidential candidate (through translator): The change is the hope of all citizens. We cannot continue to live and we shouldn't live under dictatorial regimes or with the rule of oppression and telling the people what to do and how to feel.

  MARGARET WARNER: Egyptians are expecting to elect a new president later this year.

  
  
  
• U.S. Navy SEALs Free 2 Western Hostages From Somali Captors
  

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  Members of U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 staged a dramatic rescue early Wednesday, freeing two aid workers, including one American, held hostage by Somali captors. Jeffrey Brown reports on emerging accounts of another operation unfolded in secret -- SEALs parachuting into Somalia, surprising sleeping captors and killing nine kidnappers.

  JEFFREY BROWN: An American woman and a Danish man were free today after U.S. commandos whisked them away from their pirate captors in Somalia. The operation unfolded in secret, even as President Obama made ready to address the nation.

  The first hint of action came in the president's cryptic greeting to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta just before delivering the State of the Union address last night.

  PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Good job tonight. Good job tonight.

  JEFFREY BROWN: The president said nothing else during his speech, but confirmation came several hours later.

  U.S. Navy SEALs had raided a site near Adado in central Somalia. They freed two aid workers who'd been kidnapped from another town, Galkayo, three months ago. At the time, American Jessica Buchanan and her Danish colleague, Poul Thisted, had been part of a project to clear land mines.

  Today, they were being reunited with their families. Emerging accounts said the SEALs parachuted in, and took the sleeping pirates by surprise, killing nine. There were no American casualties.

  Vice President Biden praised the operation this morning on ABC.

  VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN: It just takes your breath away, their capacity and their bravery and their incredible timing.

  JEFFREY BROWN: The raiders were from SEAL Team 6, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan last May.

  The president approved the Somalia mission on Monday. In his own statement today, he said, "This is yet another message to the world that the United States of America will stand strongly against any threats to our people."

  There have been other raids against Somali pirates in recent years to combat their hijackings of ships at sea. The piracy problem is part of the larger lawlessness that has gripped Somalia for decades and left it a broken state.

  
  
  
• A Year After Revolution Began, Many Egyptians Still Divided
  

  Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square in Cairo on the anniversary of the Jan. 25 revolution. Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.

  As Egyptians amassed in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of their regime-changing revolution, many are still divided on where they see the country going, said GlobalPost correspondent Erin Cunningham.

  Last year, anti-government protests in Cairo and other Egyptian cities forced President Hosni Mubarak from power on Feb. 11 and a military council took charge.

  "Protesters still see a lot of injustice in the post-Mubarak period," said Cunningham. "The military has obviously been quite repressive in cracking down on protesters and criminalizing political dissent."

  But others in the country view the ongoing protests as destabilizing and unnecessary, she continued. "There are a lot of people who just want to get on with their lives. They're hurting economically. So it is very polarized at the moment."

  The country elected a parliament in staggered elections over the past two months. Monday was its first day in session -- a "raucous" first day of cheers and jeers, procedural stumbles and sometimes misworded oaths of office, said Cunningham.

  "It was chaotic, but it had a sort of energy that I think everyone was really excited about," she said. "I think a lot of people were very proud. Driving around the city, you could see people crowding around television sets in cafes and watching the session being broadcast."

  On Monday, protesters marched to the parliament building to have their concerns heard, but it didn't provoke violence. "I didn't see much anger. People are still very ready to voice their political opinions," she added.

  The parliament is tasked with appointing a 100-member assembly to draft a constitution.

  Egypt next holds staggered elections for the upper house, or Shura Council -- one-third of which will be appointed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the rest elected by the people.

  Military generals have promised to cede power to civilian authorities by June 30. They said they will open nominations for presidential candidates in mid-April and hold presidential elections in mid-June, said Cunningham.

  "The Muslim Brotherhood, which is leading the parliament, has said that the army needs to stick to that timetable," she added.

  More Coverage:

  A graphic from the BBC shows the makeup of Egypt's parliament.

  Georgetown University's Samer Shehata and the Council on Foreign Relations' Steven Cook discuss the Egyptian security force's moves and motivations on the NewsHour:

  EmbedVideo(2327, 482, 304);

  GlobalPost has a new series called "The Army, the People: Egypt's Continuing Revolution," which looks at the military's funding and tactics, and what's happened to the leaders of the so-called January 25 Revolution.

  The NewsHour has a partnership with the international news website GlobalPost. View all of our World coverage and follow us on Twitter.

  

  
  
  
• 'Nigeria on the Brink' Outlines Troubled Country's Biggest Hurdles
  

  A soldier keeps a rifle beside his seat while patrolling a protest in Lagos in southwestern Nigeria on Jan. 16. Photo by Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images.

  The Nigerian government narrowly averted a lengthy strike that would have cut off oil supplies from one of the United States' major suppliers, but plenty of other problems abound in Africa's most populous nation.

  Skyrocketing fuel prices sent crowds to the streets in protest. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan responded by partially restoring the country's oil subsidies, which lowered the prices and ended the protests.

  But in addition to the oil-related unrest, Jonathan is grappling with an increasingly violent insurgency and demands to eliminate corruption in the government.

  GlobalPost looks at the genesis of all of these problems in a new series called "Nigeria on the Brink."

  "This is one of Africa's key countries, and it faces not one crisis but two," said GlobalPost's Africa editor Andrew Meldrum.

  Boko Haram, an extremist movement trying to impose an Islamic state, killed dozens in attacks on Christian churches and other gathering spots on Christmas Day.

  Watch a NewsHour interview with Paul Lubeck, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on Boko Haram's demands:

  EmbedVideo(2284, 482, 304);

  In August, a suicide bombing of U.N. headquarters in the capital Abuja killed at least 24 people.

  "It threatens to pull the country apart along Christian and Muslim lines," Meldrum said.

  While the fuel price spike and protests rattled Nigeria, some people in the country and activists in the United States were heartened to see the public holding its government accountable, Meldrum continued. "The overall crisis is forcing Nigeria to say, 'we can no longer carry on with the status quo. We must improve things.'"

  Nigeria is at the heart of Africa geographically and is the continent's most populous country with 155 million people. It supplies the United States with one-fifth of its oil.

  "What happens in Nigeria affects all the countries around it and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. It also affects the world economy," said Meldrum. "Just these past few weeks of insecurity over the oil prices in Nigeria have caused [global] oil prices to nudge up a little bit."

  A fish vendor in Lagos contends that higher prices at the pump means fewer customers. Photo by Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images.

  For a country that produces more crude oil than any other African nation, it's surprising its citizens aren't better off -- or using their country's own oil rather than having to import it for their everyday purposes.

  Tristan McConnell in Nairobi explains:

  There are only four oil refineries in the country, and all are in various states of disrepair.

  The result is that for most Nigerians, the diesel that runs their generators, the kerosene that lights their lanterns, and the petrol that moves their cars are all imported.

  The irony of this escapes nobody. It is a metaphor for Nigeria's failings as a state that provides almost nothing to ordinary Nigerians.

  Hospitals are ill-equipped, public schools are moribund, power cuts are as endless as the traffic jams that clog the potholed, rubbish-strewn roads. The Nigerian state doesn't even provide security, as attested by the deadly attacks by Islamists in the north and militants in the south.

  "The situation we have in our hands is even worse than the civil war that we fought," Jonathan told a Christian congregation in the South on Jan. 8, McConnell reported.

  "During the civil war we knew and could even predict where the enemy was coming from ... but the challenge we have today is even more complicated," Jonathan said.

  And the U.S. government is watching warily. The House Homeland Security Subcommittee issued a report in November calling Boko Haram an "emerging threat" to U.S. interests.

  Jonathan has acknowledged there are problems and he must respond in a way that gets all Nigerians involved, said Meldrum, and people will be looking at whether he devises a way to combat terrorism and end corruption that strengthens democracy.

  The NewsHour has a partnership with the international news website GlobalPost. View all of our World coverage and follow us on Twitter.

  

  
  
  
• Tanzanian School Gives Girls a Second Chance
  

  

  The SEGA -- Secondary Education for Girls Advancement -- school in a small village in Tanzania is aimed at helping women complete high school in a country with a low graduation rate.

  In Tanzania, a group of girls is starting secondary school this January. The girls are nervous and excited, as most teens are during this rite of passage, but the SEGA Girls School offers more than just a high school education.

  To this group of 26 girls, ages 14 to 16, a secondary education can mean a way out of poverty and abuse and into a life of self-sufficiency.

  SEGA -- Secondary Education for Girls Advancement -- is a small school in Tanzania's Mkundi village. It's designed to give at-risk young women a chance to complete their secondary education.

  In a country where only 49 percent of students complete their primary education, according to the Tanzanian Ministry of Education, girls often drop out when families cannot afford tuition. Many are raised in abusive homes and struggle to provide food for themselves, making it all the more difficult to complete an education. Up until recently, a law required girls to drop out of school when they became pregnant.

  And schools in Tanzania are not always safe, welcoming environments for students, said Tracey Dolan, president of Nurturing Minds, a non-profit dedicated to raising funds to educate Tanzanian girls. She said most Tanzanian public education is comparable to early-20^th century education in the United States -- rote learning, memorization and recitation, and corporal punishment for even minor infractions.

  Nurturing Minds director Polly Dolan, Tracey's sister, had been living and working in Tanzania for years when she got the idea to found the school. She discovered that girls who attended school were often put in the position of exchanging sex for housing or food, and that girls who were able to complete a secondary education had children later in their lives, were healthier and had better opportunities for jobs that would help support their families.

  Polly talked to her sister Tracey, who was in the United States, about starting an organization to raise money for her cause. They started Nurturing Minds, which funded SEGA with the goal of giving disadvantaged girls in Tanzania a second chance at a high school education. She recruited local girls from the city of Morogoro who had dropped out of school because of poverty, were orphaned or for other reasons out of their control.

  "The night before we told the girls ... that they had been chosen, I couldn't sleep at all," Polly Dolan said in an email. "I realized what a huge commitment we were making to them and I actually had no idea if we could pull it off."

  The school receives 60 to 100 applicants a year, but only 30 are accepted per graduating class so that girls can receive individual attention. The girls vary in age when they enroll. Some are as old as 16 and may have been out of school for years before joining SEGA.

  The girls take courses required by the ministry of education -- mathematics, geography, history -- but they are also taught life skills such as bookkeeping and business.

  In conjunction with the microfinance organization Fundacion Paraguaya, SEGA is also starting businesses that students will help operate, such as hotels, shops and even agrobusiness, bringing in several hundred chickens for the girls to raise and sell. Tracey Dolan said she hopes that adding real business experience to the classroom will make the school and the students self-sufficient.

  "Running businesses that the school would operate is key to our program to generate income but also for the girls to have hands-on experience in running businesses so they can work for someone else or run their own," she said.

  While SEGA hasn't graduated any students yet -- it started just three years ago -- the most advanced class just completed its Form II exams, a national exam necessary to move on to the fourth year of high school.

  What started with a rented classroom and a non-formal day program to get girls caught up to a 7^th or 8^th grade education level has expanded to four buildings, 85 students and six teachers. A new classroom and dormitory are almost complete, and six more buildings are on the way with a grant from USAID. By 2015, the school hopes to have 200 girls.

  Polly Dolan said she is already seeing the school make a difference in the young women's lives.

  "It's amazing what a stable environment, three square meals, and a small class size can do for a lot of girls," she said. "Going from an environment where a girl is expected to fail, and told she is inadequate to one where she is encouraged and expected to be able to make the grade has in some cases made all the difference."

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• 'Have You Heard From Johannesburg?' Series Examines History of ANC Party
  

  

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  As South Africa's ruling political party, the African National Congress, marked its 100th anniversary this week, PBS stations around the country have begun airing a new series called "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?" about the ANC and international efforts to end apartheid.

  RAY SUAREZ: Finally tonight, a history lesson.

  This week, the African National Congress, South Africa's ruling political party, marked its 100th anniversary.

  PBS stations around the country have begun airing a new series about the ANC and the international effort to end apartheid. It's called "Have You Heard from Johannesburg."

  This excerpt focuses on the protests in this country led by major civil rights figures.

  CECELIE COUNTS: And the plan was to request a meeting with the South African ambassador. And we knew that, in order to get a meeting with the ambassador, it would have to be people of stature. The ambassador wasn't going to meet with Joe Blow and his friends, so he needed Congressman Walter Fauntroy to make the request.

  WALTER FAUNTROY (D), former U.S. Congressman: We called in advance for an appointment. And Ambassador Fourie, said, yes, well, come any time you want. And we said we'd like to come on Thanksgiving eve, when ABC, NBC, CBS, AP and UPI had nothing much to report but turkeys.

  CECELIE COUNTS: And, lo and behold, the press arrived and they saw, boom, a picket line.

  (LAUGHTER)

  WALTER FAUNTROY: We spent a couple of hours talking to him.

  And we simply told him, look, you have not been persuasive. And unless you call Mr. Boder now on this phone and he tells you he's going to dismantle apartheid, we're going to sit-in in your office.

  Now, if Mr. Fourie had been wise, he would have said, Mr. Fauntroy, it's Thanksgiving eve. My wife is home preparing a turkey. I can almost smell the dressing now. I'm going home. Now, you can stay here. The carpeting is rather soft. You can sleep on the floor. There is a water fountain out in the hall. And here's the key to the toilet. I will see you Tuesday.

  But he didn't. He said, what? I will have you arrested.

  CECELIE COUNTS: The ambassador played right into our hands. He called the police. The police came and dragged out Mary Frances Berry and Randall Robinson and Congressman Walter Fauntroy in handcuffs.

  WALTER FAUNTROY: You can never get the discomfort of police officers from the District of Columbia who were told to arrest their congressman.

  (LAUGHTER)

  WALTER FAUNTROY: And I said, don't worry about it. You put those handcuffs on me. But what you want to do is to make sure that you take me out of here in front of those cameras.

  DAN RATHER, CBS News: Three prominent American blacks are free on their own recognizance today after spending the night in a Washington, D.C. jail. Walter Fauntroy, the D.C. delegate to Congress, called it -- and I quote -- "an act of moral witness to South Africa's apartheid policy."

  SYLVIA HILL: When you are in a struggle and you are competing with other force that also can claim the attention of media, claim the attention of history, really, then, as an organizer, you have to strategize to overtake that moment in history.

  And that is what we tried to do on behalf of the people of South Africa.

  RAY SUAREZ: "Have You Heard from Johannesburg" is featured on the PBS series "Independent Lens." Please check your local listings for the time.

  
  
  
• A Free Press? A Year After Tunisia's Revolution, Youth Weigh In
  

  

  After 23 years of restrictions under President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, 10 Tunisian youth share their thoughts with student reporter and photographer Ahmed Medien of Speak Out Tunisia, a citizen journalism training project.

  After 23 years of restrictions under President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, 10 Tunisian youth share their thoughts with student reporter and photographer Ahmed Medien of Speak Out Tunisia, a citizen journalism training project.
  
  
• The Daily Frame
  

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  Orphan students from Malawi, who were trained to speak Mandarin at a Taiwanese-funded Buddhist orphanage in Africa, perform dance and kung-fu Wednesday for a group of students in Hong Kong as a part of a cultural exchange program. Photo by Aaron Tam/AFP/Getty Images.

  
  
  
• Hurt in Libya's Revolution, Some Rebels Being Treated in Boston Area
  

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  A group of 22 Libyan men who were wounded while fighting against the Gaddafi regime in last year's war have been recovering here in the U.S., at a hospital on Boston's North Shore. Jared Bowen of WGBH-TV Boston reports.

  JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, the story of Libyan rebels who have come to the United States to recover from injuries suffered in last year's war.

  The reporter is Jared Bowen of WGBH Boston.

  JARED BOWEN: For Libyan fighters back from the brink, that is haven, a place of recovery, rehabilitation and therapy.

  DR. RYAN ZAKLIN, Spaulding Hospital: The injuries that I'm treating, many of them are gunshot wounds, and there are severe hand injuries to shoulder injuries, nerve injuries. There are, obviously, patients that also have PTSD.

  JARED BOWEN: These men -- most were civilians before the fighting began -- are being treated at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Salem, Massachusetts, a continent and a cultural divide away from home.

  Spaulding is the only facility in the country now treating wounded Libyan fighters. It was selected by the State Department in part for its care of American soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

  MAN: It took time for the patients to feel comfortable with us and really started to kind of tell us a little bit more about what had happened to them and how they were feeling.

  JARED BOWEN: All of the 22 Libyan men receiving treatment here were rebel fighters wounded while fighting against the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

  Their injuries were extreme, sustained from conflict and torture. Their care at Spaulding, a facility nationally renown for ushering patients back from the trauma of surgery, stroke and brain injury, has been funded entirely by Libya's transitional government.

  Spaulding has placed all of the men on the same floor here, preserving their sense of community. Since none speak fluent English, they have an omnipresent translator. Post-it notes turn a walk anywhere into an English lesson, and a room at the end of one corridor has been transformed into a place of prayer.

  KEVIN LOVE, Spaulding Hospital: I think it's going very well. People here worked really hard, from the most simple thing of going on Google to trying to learn a little bit about what the customs are in Libya, what kind of foods people eat, what kind of music they listen to.

  JARED BOWEN: Among the wounded here is Salem Mohamed, a civil engineer. One morning in August, he says he joined a caravan of about 400 men to attack Gadhafi forces in southern Libya. His brother, a videographer, recorded the attack.

  SALEM MOHAMED, Libyan patient (through translator): I was surrounded by the militia of Gadhafi. By that time, I got injured in my hand.

  JARED BOWEN: Mohamed came under intense gun fire while manning a gun on the back of a pickup truck. He was hit by shrapnel and was carried, bloodied and unconscious, into a Libyan hospital.

  SALEM MOHAMED (through translator): That injury, actually, it left to cut of the vessels in my hand and also injured nerves and the tendons of my arm.

  JARED BOWEN: And how is the pain in your hand?

  SALEM MOHAMED (through translator): We have been received by a very warm welcoming from the medical team and the hospital management team, from the psychological aspect, from the physical therapy, from the entertainment and the social aspect as well.

  JARED BOWEN: No one is more surprised about their treatment here than 21-year-old Belgassem Ali, a political science student who arrived in the U.S. assuming the worst about Americans, he says.

  BELGASSEM ALI, Libyan patient (through translator): When we came here, we changed completely our -- the image that Gadhafi put about America on our mind, that American nation are selfish.

  JARED BOWEN: Ali is still undergoing treatment for a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He's happy to remain in the U.S. for the time being. He and his fellow patients organize routine soccer games on the hospital rooftop and have visited New England tourist attractions.

  But they also intently monitor Libya's regime change via Facebook, Skype, and phone calls home.

  BELGASSEM ALI (through translator): You are witness to, actually, our revolution and how we stood on the face of the oppression.

  JARED BOWEN: Of Moammar Gadhafi's violent public death, Ali has no remorse for what his countrymen did.

  BELGASSEM ALI (through translator): When we captured him, we didn't show any mercy toward him. He get the same fate -- the same way that he oppressed us, we oppressed him.

  JARED BOWEN: The men will return home to Libya in small groups over the next several months, as their therapy wraps up. They are confident that all they fought and suffered for has been to a worthwhile end.

  SALEM MOHAMED (through translator): I believe that Libya is going to move to the best future. I believe that it will be an election. It will be a constitution. And that I believe Libya will be more advanced.

  JARED BOWEN: A country on the mend, just as they are.

  JEFFREY BROWN: Several of the patients went back to Libya late last month. Those needing more complex treatments are expected to go home in February.

  
  
  
• The Daily Frame
  

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  An Egyptian soldier stands guard in front of a mural of Queen Nefertiti while security guards direct the crowd outside a polling station in Minya during the final round of parliamentary elections Tuesday. At this point, the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party is ahead. Photo by Khaled Desouki/ AFP/ Getty Images.