A series of coordinated bombings in the northern Nigerian city of Kano has killed well over 100 people.  Many of the victims were police or soldiers. One of the three hospitals where victims of Friday’s blasts were taken reported a death toll of at least 131 people, and other reports from the predominantly Muslim city indicate the number of casualties may grow larger.  The attack targeted police stations and government buildings. The radical Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the multiple bombings. A 24-hour curfew was still in force in Kano Saturday afternoon, and is expected to continue at least until Sunday morning.  Reporters say the restrictions make it difficult to move about, but that relatives of the dead are being allowed to collect their loved ones’ remains. Salusi Radiu, a reporter for VOA’s Hausa Service says he felt and counted more than 24 blasts in Kano over a 90-minute period Friday, and the city’s emergency coordinator,Abubakar Jibril,.said conditions were chaotic. A spokesman for Boko Haram told reporters the bombings were in retaliation for the arrest of several sect members in Kano, the second largest city in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous nation. The militant group is blamed for many recent attacks in Nigeria, including a Christmas Day bombing near a Catholic church on the edge of Abuja, the capital, that killed nearly 40 people. Nigeria is divided between a largely Christian south and a mostly Muslim north.  Abuja is near the midpoint, but VOA’s reporters say it is more northern in culture and atmosphere.    President Goodluck Jonathan previously declared a national state of emergency to try to rein in the attacks in the north and in Abuja, but it has had little effect. The name Boko Haram means “Western education is sacrilegious” in Hausa, the main language of the north.  The group’s aim is to implement Islamic law across Nigeria.

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Despite assurances from the U.S. president that Thursday’s announced defense cuts will not come at the expense of the Asia-Pacific region, there is some nervousness in South Korea. That is where the United States maintains 28,000 troops and still operates nearly 20 bases and camps since it began a permanent presence on the peninsula with the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. South Korean officials say they have been assured by their counterparts in Washington that sweeping defense cuts will not have an impact on U.S. forces here. The United States is planning to chop, over a number of years, hundreds of billions of dollars from defense spending. The U.S. Defense Department is also expected to gradually cut an estimated 10 to 15 percent of its personnel. South Korea’s Deputy Defense Minister Lim Kwan-bin says U.S. officials have made clear to him they are committed to strengthening security cooperation in the region despite reductions elsewhere. Lim says U.S. troop cuts will not occur on the Korean peninsula. He adds that the United States will be able to rely on reserve forces, in addition to active duty personnel, in the event of hostilities. But South Korean defense analysts say they are concerned that a slimmed-down U.S. military would mean, in the event of war, fewer American ground troop force reinforcements and a longer time for them to arrive here. Baek Seung-joo, director of the Center for Security and Strategy at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, says there are worries about the U.S. force cutbacks and it could affect Seoul’s overall defense strategy. South Korea has already been planning for years to assume more responsibility for its own defense. It is scheduled, in little less than four years, to take operational control of forces on the peninsula in the event of another war with North Korea. At present, the South Korean forces would be under the command of the U.S. military if there is such a clash. In an editorial Thursday, the New York Times, which called the new defense strategy “a generally pragmatic vision,”, also cautioned that the U.S. must be ready to face multiple contingencies, including the possibility of an “unbalanced North Korean leader making a suicidal run across the South Korean border.” The two Koreas technically remain at war as no peace treaty was signed following a 1953 armistice after three years of devastating combat across the peninsula.

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Newly-anointed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Monday in Pyongyang with a private delegation of prominent South Koreans, in his first public encounter with foreign visitors since the death of his father was announced last week. The meeting brought Kim, 28, together with the widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and others in her group who entered the closed North to convey condolences over the death of longtime leader Kim Jong Il. The mourners’ group also included Hyun Jeong-eun, the head of South Korea’s Hyundai industrial conglomerate. Ahead of Monday’s high-profile meeting, official North Korean media announced that Kim had been appointed to the top post in the Communist Party. The party’s Rodong Sinmun (Newspaper of the Workers) referred to Kim Jong Un as leader of the ruling Workers’ Party Central Committee, one of the country’s highest decision-making bodies. Analysts say Kim’s carefully choreographed movements in the past week are designed to show that he has inherited all of the key positions held by his late father. Kim Jong Un holds the military rank of a four-star general, despite having little military experience. In a dispatch late Saturday, the official Korean Central News Agency called Kim Jong Un the “supreme leader of the revolutionary armed forces.”  Earlier, KCNA hailed Kim as “supreme commander” – the first use of that title, which was also claimed by his late father. Official North Korean media proclaimed the beginning of the Kim Jong Un era Thursday, describing him as the “successor” of the nation’s revolutionary undertakings “and leader of its people.” The reports said Kim Jong Un should move forward on a path of self-reliance while continuing the teachings of Kim Jong Il. They also urged the nation to rally behind the young leader and faithfully uphold his leadership. Kim Jong Il’s death after 17 years in power has sparked regional and Western concerns about the future of a country with a large army, a history of deep animosity toward its southern neighbor, and holding broad nuclear ambitions. A state funeral is set for December 28. Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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