50 bodies recovered in Nigerian town

50 bodies recovered in Nigerian town

BAUCHI, Nigeria

Residents of a Nigerian town attacked by Boko Haram criticized security forces for failing to protect them despite warnings that the Islamic militants were nearby. At least 50 bodies have been recovered, many horribly burned, in the town.

The attack on Gamboru, in remote northeastern Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, is part of the Islamic militants’ campaign of terror that included the kidnapping of teenage girls from a school, 276 of whom remain missing and believed held by Boko Haram in the vast Sambisa Forest in northeastern Nigeria.

The death toll from the Monday afternoon attack in Gamboru initially was reported by a senator to be as many as 300, but a security official said it is more likely to be around 100. Some Gamboru residents said bodies were recovered from the debris of burned shops around the town’s main market, which was the focus of the attack.

Quake in Mexico

ACAPULCO, Mexico

A strong earthquake shook the southern Pacific coast of Mexico as well as the capital and several inland states Thursday, sending frightened people into torrential rains that also were bearing down on the coast.

The magnitude-6.4 quake in southern Guerrero state was centered about 9 miles north of Tecpan de Galeana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and was felt about 171 miles miles away in Mexico City, where office workers streamed into the streets away from high-rise buildings.

There were no reports of injuries, but varying reports of damage near the epicenter emerged throughout the day.

Geithner suggested Clinton as successor

WASHINGTON

Timothy Geithner says in a new memoir that he considered stepping down as Treasury secretary in 2010 after the financial crisis and suggested Hillary Rodham Clinton as a possible successor.

President Barack Obama rebuffed Geithner’s suggestion, and he remained at Treasury until 2013.

Geithner’s memoir will be published next week. On Thursday, The Associated Press bought an early copy.

Geithner writes of the incident in “Stress Test,” which explores his turbulent four years at Treasury. During his tenure, the Obama administration faced the worst recession and most- severe financial crisis since the Great Depression.

4 found dead in Fla. home were shot

TAMPA, Fla.

A man, his wife and their two teenage children were shot before the million-dollar home they were renting burned down in what investigators called arson, a fire perhaps exacerbated by fireworks and gasoline, authorities said Thursday.

Autopsies still were being completed to determine how they died, but investigators have said they are looking into the possibility of a murder-suicide. Authorities recovered a gun at the home registered to Darrin Campbell, and he bought an “exceedingly large amount” of fireworks and gas cans days before the fire, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Col. Donna Lusczynski said.

House to subpoena records in VA deaths

WASHINGTON

A House committee voted Thursday to subpoena records relating to a waiting list at the Phoenix veterans hospital, and officials said Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki had ordered a nationwide audit of access to care that the agency provides.

Meanwhile, Shinseki brushed aside calls for his resignation and got an unexpected political lifeline from House Speaker John Boehner after reports that 40 patients died because of delayed treatment at an agency hospital.

Associated Press